As expected, the Conservatives want to encourage greater personal and local responsibility rather than more central government. But David Cameron seized the advantage in the publicity war by promising to postpone Labour's proposed National Insurance 1p increase for employers and workers earning less than £35,000. In addition, in terms of SMEs, the Conservatives have plans to:
• Waive National Insurance for the first 10 employees of every new business.
• Cut the headline rate of corporation tax to 25p and lower the small companies' rate to 20p
• Increase SME access to government contracts by simplifying application procedures
• Set up Local Enterprise Partnerships
• Build a network of business mentors
• Give SMEs a bonus of £2000 for every apprentice they take on
• Streamline small business taxation, including IR35, which the Tories say has cost business £73m over the past 10 years
In addition, the Tories will offer loans to would-be entrepreneurs, supporting self-employment and franchising as a route back into work.
Also on the financing front, they plan to use government guarantees to create more diverse sources of affordable credit for SMEs, based on a simple National Loan Guarantee Scheme.
And they want to help social enterprises to deliver public service reforms by creating a Big Society Bank, funded from unclaimed bank assets. This would provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.
You may be forgiven for having a sense of deja vu, because some of their ideas – on public sector contracts and enterprise partnerships for example – are not new, but would the other SME measures encourage you to vote Tory?
