The Conservative Friends of India organised a virtual session with Paul Scully MP, Minister for small business, MP for Sutton & Cheam, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of “BEIS” & Minister of London last week. He spoke about the challenges of reopening the economy, the existing economic support and a roadmap ahead of Brexit for the recovery of the UK's economy.
The MP said, “When we came into the pandemic, we were trying to wrap our arms around the economy. We made the furlough scheme, the grant scheme, etc. They were all designed to act quickly and support as many people as possible. They were all reverse engineered around an existing structure. There are a number of businesses that have fallen between the cracks and we’re trying to do the best we can to develop a loan that works best as we go along and support individual businesses as best we can. We are at a point where we are phasing out rapid response and trying to bring in recovery.”
Scully spoke about simplifying taxes and also shared his thoughts that “we’re wealth creators not wealth protectors”. He said some people have run out of business ideas or found that their old one won’t work anymore. Some of them have found new ones that are far more profitable. He also spoke about maintaining consistency in granting access to finance and shared that out of the existing start-up loans, 40 percent of those loans have gone to female entrepreneurs. Scully emphasised that people who have more informal networks must have access to finance.
Paul Scully also shared his thoughts on how badly the hospitality industry - especially the wedding and catering industry has been hit. Scully thinks that there is a “behavioural science around it” and he can “totally empathize” with those business owners. He said, “The way we’re structuring our response is that the government’s first priority is to save lives. We’re trying.” He hopes for a social roadmap to recovery in this sector.
“We want to make sure people who have ideas and have got a dream get the start in their businesses. But there are a lot of challenges ahead,” he added.
Scully addressed the status of the Coronavirus vaccine and said, “We are doing well in working towards a vaccine. But for small or big businesses, I won’t be counting on whether or not a vaccine comes.” According to him, the new norm has to be to realise that public transport needs to be deep cleaned, people must use hand sanitizers and masks while maintaining social distancing.
The MP urged people to get back into central London and the city centre to help the UK economy. He also said that there are guidelines in place for businesses to reopen. He said, “You can urge your friends and colleagues and encourage them to get back into central London. We’ve also made sure when the customers come back, investors come back, the fundamentals of our economy remain the same. We want to make sure that the Britain that is represented in so many of our cities, is still there. So that they have a place that they recognise and want to travel to.”
Scully touched upon Brexit and said, “We have the transition phase coming up as well, so as we look to Britain, as we start as a new sovereign and independent nation on the 31st of December, which is a good challenge. I’m just about to speed through the internal markets bill, which no doubt in the news is attracting controversy, but again you look at what it’s doing. It’s actually a business continuity bill to make sure that none of the home nations discriminate against the other for political reasons or a narrow trading route.”
Furthering his stance on reopening the economy, he said, “Let’s just remember there is much work to do, that if we give and encourage people with confidence to go back to their local areas to work at places, shops, centre or town, then hopefully those of you working in retail or hospitality or the next thing you’re getting into is the positive experience, the joy. That’s what’s gonna bring our economy back mainly through small businesses, creating opportunity for the new people, new customers.”
Scully thinks that we have got so much to learn and share across other diaspora groups and countries. “There’s another bill I’m going to put through, maybe some time next year is the employment bill which we were looking to go through anyway. What has happened is, this (the pandemic) has accelerated the process,” he said.
When a full time carer and entrepreneur asked him about the help she could get, Scully directed her to get in touch with local peers and authorities. He said, “We want to make sure that no matter where you are in the country, you get business support.”
