UK Government Spending Review is a missed opportunity to help smaller firms

Press Releases 25 Nov 2020

FSB Wales' response to the latest UK Government Spending Review

Commenting on the Spending Review, Ben Francis, FSB Wales Policy Chair, said:

“UK Government, which claims to be pro-enterprise, had very little to say today about the importance of business and private sector job creation in today’s Spending Review.

“This Spending Review was a missed opportunity to help small business owners – not least those who have been excluded from support measures – and brings the need for a pro-business Spring Budget into focus. Rather than being a tax-raising Budget, it must have growth and recovery at its heart.

“The lack of real clarity on the future operation of the Shared Prosperity Fund unfortunately adds to that sense of missed opportunity. To allow us to plan for a long-term future for economic development – and the economic recovery from Covid – a secure future for these funds which are so important for business support, skills funding and infrastructure investment in Wales must be clearly outlined, which requires us to have a Shared Prosperity Fund that allows for us to plan. We are now three years from when we originally anticipated details on the Shared Prosperity Fund and it is disappointing that we are still unsure of how this will operate.

“However, welcome the fact that funding will flow from UK Government to Wales from spending commitments made in England. Welsh Government needs to think now about how it can use Barnett consequential funding that will flow as a result of UK Government spending on infrastructure and the Levelling Up Fund to help secure our economy and the future of Wales’ business community, who have faced an incredibly difficult year and deserve as much support as can be mustered at all levels of government.”