Employment Rights: ministers refuse to listen – and we’ll all pay the price
Entrepreneurs know better than anyone just what it takes to get an idea off the ground, and to keep it alive. The common phrases associated with starting and growing a business are clichéd; the sleepless nights, the stress, the worry over payroll and the often crushing sense of responsibility – to family, employees and investors.
But clichéd or not, these experiences are very real and common among start-up founders, small business owners and large employers. They are also shamefully under-appreciated by ministers and officials. The lack of understanding is often nothing short of callous.
Consider the case of Kerry Larcher, who has run her salon in Hornchurch for three decades, but who now says she cries herself to sleep at night as she contemplates the “crippling” cost increases facing her business because of last October’s budget. She told the BBC last week that Labour’s policies will saddle her with an extra £23,000 a year, and that “this has been the worst period of my life in 30 years.”
At this point, remember that Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves pledged to run “the most pro-business government the country has ever seen”. The additional costs that weigh so heavily on Kerry Larcher – and hundreds of thousands of other people just trying to do the right thing and earn a living – were the vanguard of a wider assault on private sector employment that began with the budget and will soon be compounded when the Employment Rights Bill becomes law.
As we report today, the British Retail Consortium has issued what feels like a final cry for sanity, warning that unless the Bill is amended retailers will face having to lay off staff and hike prices to absorb the inevitable additional burdens. Their intervention is hot on the heels of a remarkable letter sent by the UK’s biggest business groups to members of the House of Lords, urging a rethink.
Meanwhile, ministers have their fingers in their ears. They must listen to these warnings, and while they’re at it they should listen to Tom Beahon, who founded sportswear brand Castore with his brother, Phil. Together they took the business from their mum’s kitchen table to a £1bn company. Tom warns in City PM today that the government has to start understanding and celebrating risk and entrepreneurship.
He says the government’s “rhetoric doesn’t match their actions.” He’s right, and we’ll all pay the price for this disconnect.