
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
2| WIGWAM TOYS
More than just a shop
A successful small business in the
retail world is more than just a shop.
It provides flexible employment for
local people, puts money back into
the community, a friendly face and an
asset to the area around it. A thriving
community should include, and can
support, a thriving businesscommunity.
The financial crisis and subsequent
tightening of lending regulations has
meant fewer businesses are being
born. In order to regenerate our high
streets and revitalise the retail sector,
we need to allow the one-man band,
the family shop and the start-ups in
on the game. In order to do this, there
needs to be an agreed-upon definition
of what constitutes an SME, as well as
specific lending and taxation policies
for microbusinesses.
Once microbusinesses are established,
local government policy has a large
part to play in their success or failure.
Town planning, public transport and
traffic management can have a huge
impact on whether shops succeed. If
customers find it difficult or costly to
get to their local shopping centres,
they will simply buy online, leading
to more store closures. We need to
be making it easier for those minded
to open businesses to do so. If
regeneration is to happen, it needs to
be nurtured from the ground up.
Keeping things fresh
We know that our success as a small
community-based business is our
customer appeal. We have limited
retail space, which means we buy
small quantities of stock on a regular
basis. As we are in a residential area,
and don’t rely on tourist or town
centre trade, we need to make sure
our customers who pop in weekly see
something new. Being small works
to our advantage, as we can work
with new and emerging companies,
supporting them by placing small
orders, trialling products in the store
and providing feedback. They get retail
exposure and we get to show our
customers exciting new products they
won’t find elsewhere. It is mutually
beneficial, and an example of how
microbusinesses can help each other to
grow into small or medium businesses.
The way we view the shopping
experience has to change as well. If
rents remain so high, landlords need to
be flexible regarding the tenancies they
accept. As an example, a former clothing
store that had been vacant for a year has
reopened with three microbusinesses
in residence, accessible through one
entrance. This creative thinking is vital
to our high streets’ survival and it is
vital that our microbusiness sector is
nurtured and taken into consideration
when making policy. New growth
must be cultivated otherwise there is
nothing to replacedeadwood.
Getting tax right
The taxation burden that falls on
small business means that small policy
changes can have a big impact on a
business’s viability. Last year, Justin
King suggested that VAT rates should
increase to 22 per cent and business
rates should halve, to help save
the high street. To me this shows a
fundamental lack of understanding
about the small businesses that make
up the heart of the UK retail sector.
If VAT rates were to increase, there
would have to be a price increase
to consumers, hitting the small
independent sector hardest and
actually speeding up the closure of
many high street and community
stores. His assertion that halving
business rates compensates for the two
per cent increase in VAT is incorrect.
Under small business rate relief many
small businesses currently pay very
little in business rates, but for most the
biggest single outgoing is the VAT bill.
In order to
regenerate
our high
streets and
revitalise the
retail sector,
we need to
allow the one-
man band, the
family shop
and the start-
ups in on the
game
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