Conservatives and Lib Dems focus on business

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have focused their election pledges today on helping British businesses.

The Conservatives have unveiled a ten-point action plan, which they claim will help “bolster” British businesses.

The Liberal Democrats proposals include plans to "set business free" with proposals including the reform of business rates with an allowance for small businesses; and simplification of the tax system.

Speaking at an election campaign conference in London, Conservative leader Michael Howard said that a Conservative government would scrap Labour’s New Deal, which he described as “costly”, reduce civil service jobs by 235,000 and abolish 168 public bodies and quangos.

The Conservatives ten-point plan would introduce deregulation, which they claim is “damaging” competitiveness and jobs, create a business-driven skills agenda, lower taxes and create a “fairer and simpler” tax system. The party also unveiled plans to promote freer, fairer trade; strengthen support for British exporters, act on transport to aid business and review the national energy strategy.

Mr Howard accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of creating a civil service “the size of Sheffield”. He said: “We have to take a stand on government waste so that we can lower taxes. We're going to do what every decent manager in every business does - cut out waste. There are two Britains today. Private sector Britain, where people are working harder just to stand still, struggling just to make ends meet. And bureaucratic Britain, where money is no object, you spend what you like and employ who you like. So where we can do things more efficiently, we will.”

Mr Howard reiterated his claim that the Conservatives had identified savings of £35 billion and accused the Labour government of having “a gaping black hole in the public finances”.

The Liberal Democrats unveiled their pledges to support business by “setting it free” today. The pledges unveiled by the party’s Treasury spokesman in the Lords, Lord Newby at the British Chambers of Commerce Conference included: abolishing, in the “biggest single act of deregulation ever," the Department of Trade and Industry; introducing independent impact assessments and sunset clauses on new regulation; reforming business rates with an allowance for small businesses, saving them up to £600 per year; and simplifying the tax system.

Lord Newby said that British businesses were being held back, “struggling under a mountain of government of government rules, tax complications, bureaucracy and inspection.” He said that businesses knew their customers and understood their markets and did not need the “meddling” of civil servants.

Lord Newby said: “Small and medium-sized businesses are the engines of the economy and we have to give them room to breathe. We will only subject them to regulation where the benefits clearly outweigh the costs, as measured by the administrative burden they impose. We will streamline the inspection regimes businesses face. We will simplify the tax system they struggle with.”

(KMcA/SP)