George Osborne, the UK Conservative Party's spokesman on finance and tax, has put forward a series of new policy proposals specifically designed to help smaller businesses.
"Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. Not only do they employ over half of the entire UK workforce and generate over half of the total UK turnover, but they're also responsible for bringing new products and services to market, generating competition and expanding consumer choice," the Shadow Chancellor told Conservatives.com.
As part of a four-point plan devised to address the needs of the UK's small business sector, Osborne has asked Lord Forsyth's Tax Reform Commission to consider the feasibility of aligning the period of charge for the national insurance and income tax systems.
Osborne also wants to make it mandatory that all government bodies list available contracts on the 'Supply2gov' website so that small businesses can bid for them, and to examine whether the widespread local government practice of requiring three years of accounts from bidding companies should be curbed.
Other measures set forth by Osborne include asking Adam Afriyie, the Chairman of the Conservative's Deregulation Taskforce, to set out clear proposals to embed a more business-oriented culture throughout government, and examining proposals to increase the level of small business involvement in adult education policies, at both local and national level.
"I believe that Government should be helping those running small businesses, not making their lives harder, as this Chancellor has done," Osborne stated.
"A new direction is needed - one that helps small companies grow, instead of strangling them at birth," he added.
However, while small businesses will doubtless welcome some of Osborne's proposals, they are unlikely to be heartened by the lack of a clear commitment by the Tories to cut taxes should they reclaim power at the next election.
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