Thursday, March 13, 2025

The Government is consulting on its forthcoming Small Business Strategy (due to be published Summer 25), that aims to increase small business productivity and growth. It is also establishing a new Business Growth Service, that the existing Growth Hub will become part of.

Today, the Government requested that Kent County Council engage with its business networks, to gain views on multiple questions, which the Government would welcome small businesses’ views on.  If you would like to give your views, please respond before 27 March 25, to this consultation via: https://forms.office.com/e/qr4hUcvJXc. 

BACKGOUND

Small Business Strategy

• The Government’s new Small Business Strategy aims to increase small business growth and productivity across the UK and will seek to outline the government’s business support offer for all SMEs.
• Central Government is considering five core policy pillars as Gov. develops the Strategy:

1. High Streets: Creating safe, thriving high streets for small businesses in their communities (including through potential policies on empty properties, business rates and petty crime)
2. Finance: Enabling access to finance for firms to start and scale, and clamping down on late payment (including through potential policies on debt and equity finance provided by public and private lenders and investors; and strengthening prompt payments regulations, and debt and equity finance British Business Bank Nations and Regional Funds)
3. Markets: Opening up international and domestic markets for small businesses (including through potential policies on government procurement (domestic) and export support services (international))
4. Business Capabilities: Unlocking the business skills and enablers for firms to succeed (including through potential policies on management/leadership skills and training, digital adoption, e-invoicing, innovation support)
5. Wider Environment: Delivering a stable, long-term environment for entrepreneurship – strong foundations from skills to tax and regulation (including through potential policies on tax relief, clear regulations, long-term infrastructure plans – NB: Industrial Strategy also looking at this area, this strategy will consider any SME-specific angles of these areas)

• As part of the Strategy development, Gov. is considering how to promote entrepreneurship and encourage an entrepreneurial culture.

Business Growth Service

Over the long-term, the new Business Growth Service, announced by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade in December, will be an integral enabler of the Strategy.

Gov. knows that free-to-access support boosts growth and productivity. This is why Gov. needs to improve the current support offer to businesses.

Currently, government’s support for business is fragmented across multiple different services, offers, brands and websites (e.g. gov.uk, great.gov.uk, Help to Grow, Export Academy, Growth Hubs delivered with Local Authorities, etc). By joining up and streamlining this landscape across the UK and by leveraging improved digitalisation, the BGS aims to:

• provide a unified, cohesive, recognised and trusted business support offer across the UK, encompassing both online and in person advice, services and programmes; integrating seamlessly with the offer from local Growth Hubs.
• enable businesses to follow a more personalised journey to accessing the right support dependent on their specific issues, characteristics (e.g. location, size, sector) and growth ambition, with improved signposting and triaging between different business support offers;
• further personalise the business support journey for businesses through personalised accounts and dashboards that provide tailored advice, nudges and reminders on diverse business growth issues (e.g. tax, skills, financial support, market opportunities, etc.) as part of the longer-term ambition of developing One Login for Business;
• emulate successful international comparators such as the US, Denmark, Ukraine, and South Korea where there is cohesion across a wide range of support offers and providers via single log-in portals and/or web platforms.

Through the changes delivered through the BGS, Gov. is aiming to transform government support for businesses, making it more accessible, joined-up and impactful. Local delivery in partnership with Growth Hubs will bring national and local support together, including from the public and private sector, so that businesses can access the right support at the right time. This should remove barriers to growth, enhance productivity, drive job creation and stimulate innovation across SMEs, bolstering the UK’s economic growth and strengthening the UK’s position as a leading, pro-business economy.