A future Labour government would support business in the West of England – not damage it – by creating a more prosperous Britain and investing in skills and new technologies, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said today.
Launching the party’s business plan for the region, he dismissed suggestions that Labour was anti-business, insisting it was on the side of small firms and would protect them against unfair competition from large companies.
It would also boost training and apprenticeships to plug the skills gap now hitting many West businesses while backing low-carbon technologies and strengthening manufacturing supply chains.
Speaking at the launch event with Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves, Mr Balls said the Coalition Government had failed businesses of all sizes – and a future Tory government would carry on its policies of favouring only a few large companies with tax cuts.
Labour would put small business first by reducing their taxes and in the South West would cut or freeze business rates on 181,000 small business properties.
It would give exporters the confidence to invest by staying in a reformed European Union – bringing certainty to the 1,324 business in the region that export to Europe – and would promote an industry strategy for the region’s biggest firms to raise skills.
There was also the promise of devolved powers and funding from Whitehall to the regions to allow local authorities to better match their spending with local needs.
“We need to invest for the future,” he said. “That means investing in skills and supporting our young people – the number of apprenticeships in the South West has been reduced by 6,500.
“Small businesses here in the South West don’t see the recovery that David Cameron talks about working for them. We will strengthen the Competition and Markets Authority to make sure small businesses aren’t treated unfairly by big businesses.
“We want to see businesses succeed to raise living standards and create decent jobs with decent wages.”
Labour would ban “exploitative” zero-hour contracts and encourage more employers to pay a living wage.
Mr Balls and Ms Reeves launched the business plan at aerospace giant Airbus’s Filton plant near Bristol.
Ms Reeves said one of the biggest issues facing business was the uncertainty that would be caused by an in-out referendum if the Tories won the election.
“We are here today at Airbus, which is a major international and European business. The Tories are sleeping walking towards an EU exit,” she said. “That would be bad news for business and bad news for jobs.” An estimated 100,000 jobs would be lost straight away in the South West if the UK left the EU, Labour claim.
Pictured: Ed Balls and Rachel Reeves, fifth and sixth from left, in the Airbus A400M production plant with, from left, John Allen, head of component delivery; Cllr Ian Boulton, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Filton and Bradley Stoke; Andrew Martin, head of plant; Jo McCarron, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Kingswood; and John Reeves, head of stage 1 production
