Today Rt Hon John Healey chose the MTC – Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry as the venue for his first major speech as chancellor and I had a front row seat to hear him.
A key theme, not suprisingly, was growth with a focus on “good growth” in “every postcode” and that’s a theme I applaud, taking decisions out of Westminster, and what can sometimes be a London bubble, and putting the money and the decision making power into the hands of those closest to where investment for growth can be made to ensure a balanced, growing economy across the UK.
BUT
There’s a challenge, how do you ensure every postcode gets included?
Much has already been said about the investment in “The North” which is leaving my home, the Midlands, wondering if we’re being forgotten about, despite the announcement being from here and John rightfully highlighting the immense strengths of the region.
Another challenge is the shires, the rural economy. The focus from Andy Burnham and today from John Healey was on City Region Mayors. But many small businesses are located in rural areas, in our market towns. Yes, this includes traditional and much-needed agriculture businesses but also many other innovative SMEs. How do we make sure they don’t get left behind?
And then there are SMEs. 99% of UK businesses are SMEs, but they barely got a mention. Yes, we need the Unicorns and High Growth businesses, but we also need a sustainable and resilient SME sector in every postcode. How do we deliver that? Julian David OBE asked a vital question about SMEs and tech adoption to allow them to gain productivity advantage, something I’ve been working on with DBT now BIST in my role on the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce.
It was good to also catch up briefly with Rt. Hon. Jonathan Reynolds MP afterwards and I look forward to continuing the discussion with him and others in his department on these vital questions. At Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) we not only have the research and evidence on the current challenges but also the way forward on many of these issues and look forward to collaborating with this administration to remove the barriers and make a business environment where SMEs can thrive and deliver the growth that John Healey is looking for from UK businesses.