Small Business Saturday: Time to free Yorkshire firms from Tory doom-loop - Rachel Reeves

There’s no prouder champion of our brilliant Yorkshire and Humber businesses than me.

From Form Shop and Studio in Hull championing local creatives to my favourite breakfast spot Carol’s Confectionary in Leeds West; from the creative businesses at Sunnybank Mills in Farsley to Northern Bloc Ice Cream, our small businesses are sewed into the fabric of our communities.

But they’re crucial for the future of our country too.

We need our Yorkshire and British businesses to thrive, not just survive, so we can create good, new jobs and get money flowing back into our economy.

That’s so important if we are to break free from the doom-loop of low growth, low productivity and high taxes that 12 years of Tory government have left us stuck in.

It’s why a dynamic partnership with businesses small and big across Yorkshire and Britain are at the heart of Labour’s serious plan to get our economy growing.

Our plan means that we’ll scrap business rates and replace them with a fairer, more modern system.

It means making sure online giants pay their fair share so there’s a level playing field and our high streets can compete.

And it means bringing in annual revaluations, handing discounts straight to businesses instead of making them wait for years.

Labour’s recognition that British businesses are the lifeblood of our economy is also why I launched our Start-up Review, with the independent peer and champion of the north Jim O’Neill at the helm.

This review will help us make Britain the best place to start and grow a business - while Labour’s mission to buy, make and sell more in Britain will help our homegrown firms win more contracts.

A strong partnership with business means facing some of the challenges holding back industry in the UK. And that includes fixing some of the holes in the government’s Brexit deal.

As we shape a new future outside of the EU, we want our businesses to be leading the way, not falling behind.

It’s why Labour will reduce the red tape holding back our fantastic food and drink businesses in Yorkshire and across the country, while keeping standards high. It’s why we’d seek to agree mutual recognition of qualifications ensuring our services can compete. And why we’d work to make it easier for our amazing cultural industries perform and exhibit across the EU too.

Investing in skills across Yorkshire and the country too is vital for growth as well.

So Labour will give businesses the flexibility they need to train their workforce and deliver growth, by turning the Tories’ failed apprenticeships levy into a ‘Growth and Skills Levy’.

We’ll also make sure skills policy is better aligned with regional economic policy and local labour markets – and set up a new expert body, Skills England so we can meet the skills gaps we have over the coming decade.

These are just some of the ways a pro-business, pro-worker Labour government will get our economy firing on all cylinders.

Businesses across Yorkshire and the Humber deserve a government that believes in them and in the power they hold – for growth, for innovation, and for people across Britain.

That is what a Labour government will bring, while also giving communities more of a say on how that growth happens and reaping its rewards.

That message was key for Labour ahead of the Great Northern Conference this month.

We went into the conference saying how local economic powers are a critical ingredient in growing industries of the future across the North.

Creating more local growth can’t just be done by pulling a lever from Whitehall.

If we want towns and cities across Britain to lead in the growth industries, if they are to create the environment in which those businesses can thrive, they will need the tools to do so.

That’s why in the next Labour government, our Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy and I will ensure local communities get broader and deeper economic powers.

This will give communities more control over their future and help them to contribute more to our country’s economic growth.

All of this forms the foundation of how Labour will help Britain’s economy stronger.

It’s a plan for growth – which was sorely missing from the Tories’ Autumn Statement this month.

And it is built on the knowledge that growth comes from the talents and efforts of thousands of businesses like those across Yorkshire and the Humber that we celebrate this Small Businesses Saturday – and the millions of working people that make our great county what it is.

Rachel Reeves is Labour MP for Leeds West and the Shadow Chancellor.