The NI changes are going to cost my organisation £1000 per employee

Today's Sunday Times has a heart-felt article by the CEO of small brewery Timothy Taylor explaining exactly why small businesses fear Government. I've linked it, but it's behind the paywall so may not succeed.

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/my-brewery-timothy-taylors-succeeds-despite-whitehall-not-because-of-it-qr7zq98jc

Small shops have been closing ever since the 1970s with the advent of chain stores, supermarkets, etc. The rot set in LONG before the internet. I remember people bemoaning the "identikit" high street of nothing but chain stores back in the 90s. Our town lost it's Marks & Spencer and Woolworths in the 90s. Coincided with a couple of huge out of town supermarkets opening up on the outskirts. High Street was just about muddling on and then the council killed it stone dead with a one way system, traffic calming and pedestrianisation in the early noughties. I agree the the internet is "Now" damaging what's left of the high street, but the reality was that in so many places it was only clinging on to life on life support due to supermarkets, retail parks and car-hating councils absolutely wrecking what we used to have.

The reality is that governments of both colours hate small businesses - Labour want everything state controlled, Tories want all the businesses owned by millionaires, billionaires and hedge funds.

It's the same with pubs. Yes, they're closing now, but they've also been closing for a couple of decades or more. Cheap booze from supermarkets is part of it, but so has been the enormous increases in costs they've faced, from rent, business rates, wages, utilities, etc - it's been never ending for a couple of decades or more. Lots fell by the wayside years ago. Those that have survived are now struggling. The pub industry is dominated by the big brewers who not only control the booze, they own the buildings and can dictate the rent, terms of business, what products are sold, etc. - again, "big business" in control.

Shops are closing down because people are buying online. Pubs are shutting because people are drinking at home or not at all. I think it would happen regardless of the costs of living.

Employers also got a significant tax cut in November 2023, they didn't pass that on in the form of price cuts did they.

They were hit by the cost of living crisis too! People go into business in the hope of making a living from it - when their profits are eaten up by rises in the costs like rent, energy, food (say hospitality), they are not going to accept working for nothing themselves! Thats why pubs, nurseries, restaurants, care homes, independent shops etc are closing! Walk down high streets and see how many empty premises there are, ignoring the charity shops, coffee shops, hairdressers and estate agents.

We can’t have an economy based on coffee shops!

Well, thats always been the case, all those MW rises have to be funded.

Employers also got a significant tax cut in November 2023, they didn't pass that on in the form of price cuts did they.

Housing benefits freeze has been unfrozen, after many years of freezes by the Tories.

the budget for NHS and primary services hasn't even been set yet and the issues with care etc all happened under the Cons..... its labours job to try and fix it and that means tax rises.

Yes, because if the government raises the NMW and employers NI, without productivity being increased, the only way employers can fund those rises in staff costs, is by increasing their prices!

Meanwhile the poor get poorer with the freeze in housing benefits and the refusal to lift the two child benefit cap, so they will be spending even less on goods.

There will be more bed blocking in the NHS, as care homes close down, unable to afford these unfunded rises in the costs of employing the care staff. It’s like I heard a community care lawyer say once:

”Local authorities said to care homes, we are not going to fund trips out for residents. So the residents, who were on full fat milk, are now on semi skimmed milk. Then the local authorities say, we are not going to fund activities in the home. The residents are now on skimmed milk. The local authorities keep cutting their funding, until the residents are on water!”

When MIL was discharged from the NHS, to a care home, rated inadequate, we felt like we were wandering round on the Marie Celeste, trying to find the care staff. We were told staffing was the bare minimum to comply with the law. How could the care home owners cut that any more?

This. We need to start charging properly, not just hoping those who can afford it will go privately.

A friend of mine is a private GP and is booked out for weeks.

Raise income tax across the board to get nearer to the tax burden the rest of Europe has (around 40-45% compared with ours hovering, I believe, around 30-35%).
NHS - largest employer in Europe, I believe, and one of the largest in the world. Needs to start charging - many socialist countries did have charges attached to visits, with a cap for chronic diseases.

NHS cannot be fully funded by the state.

And yet both Labour and Tories absolutely hate them.

Yep. Small businesses are the backbone of the country.

Yep, the Federation of Small Business statistics are quite enlightening as to just how many people are employed by the smallest of businesses - the figures are surprisingly high.

The official definition of a small business is up to 49 employees, and according to Gov stats there are 1.4 million such businesses - so plenty of them, many of whom will be concerned! They employ c8 million people, which represents a good number of 'working people'.

In what way do you think taxes/NHS need to be considered?

I don't disagree with a raised minimum wage, increased housing availability but I do think the NHS and blanket increase in taxes has to be considered.

I work for a charity and am very worried. We are still recovering from lockdown and CoL has massively reduced donations. I think there will be redundancies.

We're talking different things.

Overall, the NHS operates with a below average number of managers when compared to the private sector. It is undermanaged, particularly at lower levels of management in direct support of frontline staff.

You're arguing it's top heavy with management. That's another issue. It may also too many senior managers and a too vertical organisation structure.

The NHS can have both too few managers overall and too many senior managers at the same time. They're not incompatible statements.

Oh I agree it’s not much. And to my mind 30 ish employees is a very small business.

That’s 30-ish employees if they’re mostly low paid but with a manager or two.

Not even that small - I think any company/charity with an NI bill of up to £100k is eligible for employment allowance up to £10kish of their NI costs

I guess because if they didn’t give the money for NI to be paid in the normal way then the true cost of labour in the NHS would not be correctly accounted for. The real costs would be hidden in effect.

In one sense it doesn’t really matter. The cost to the public purse is the same whether it is exempted or given the money to pay it..