BRITAIN’S politicians may be making a mess of Brexit.
But it is Britain’s businesses that will get us out of it.
Whatever happens in our negotiations with the EU, this country will depend for its prosperity after Brexit — as it always has — on millions of businesses, up and down the land selling, exporting and innovating.
It is these firms that have made us a great trading nation, and the fifth largest economy in the world.
But there is a problem.
The “voice of business” heard in Whitehall is not the voice of business.
It tends to be the voice of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which is dominated by the comfortable incumbents and large multi-nationals.
Family firms — those owned and run by one person, or by members of the same family — make up the overwhelming majority of Britain’s businesses.
These 4.8million firms employ 12.2million people, or almost 40 per cent of workers — and pay enough tax to fund the entire NHS.
They are at the heart of our communities, rooted in their lives. Yet all too often, their needs are ignored.
My own family started as blacksmiths in Uttoxeter, Staffs.
In 1945, my father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, rented a lock-up garage for 30 shillings a week.
He developed Europe’s first hydraulic tipping trailer for use by local farmers — and then, in 1953, the backhoe loader, the classic JCB digger.
JCB — JC Bamford Excavators Ltd — has produced more than a million machines.
We have a turnover of more than £4billion and factories around the world.
Yet we remain a proud family business, headquartered in the Midlands and employing thousands of people there.
Ours is not a unique success story. Yet it is rarer than it should be.
Our main factory in Staffs used to be surrounded by thriving family manufacturers, mostly in the Black Country, Birmingham and Manchester.
Over the decades, they have disappeared — because of tax regimes that made it impossible to pass firms on, or takeovers that stripped away what was special about the company, or government mandarins who thought they knew better what industry needed.
In Germany, their world-class manufacturing sector thrives because they champion family firms, not least via tax breaks that make it normal for ownership to move across generations.
In Britain, the tax system pushes entrepreneurs to sell up, and family businesses find it harder to get finance.
No wonder that fewer than 20 per cent expect to keep their firm in the family.
Yet we at JCB still have many excellent family firms among our suppliers — and our customers.
In manufacturing, there are more than a quarter of a million family companies, employing more than a million people in jobs that add real value to the community.
And such firms are found in every sector of the economy, not just ours.
A company such as JCB is big enough to stand up for, and speak for, itself.
But too many small firms do not get a hearing in government.
Despite the fact that small and medium-sized enterprises — SMEs — are creating almost three times as many jobs as larger firms, it is the voice of the giants that dominates.
Yes, these large firms contribute enormously to the economy, but they tend to be the most comfortable with the status quo.
They might moan about regulation but they can afford to deal with it, knowing that it deters their smaller competitors.
They see Brexit, for example, in terms of costs, rather than opportunities. This is reflected in government.
Theresa May’s approach to Brexit was safety-first, focusing on protecting the cross-border supply chains of the multi-nationals.
Yet 88 per cent of British firms do not export. Their main worries are to do with competition and regulation.
But regulation, in particular, is harder to address if we are still following European rules — as is striking new trade deals.
Protecting the big companies means reducing opportunities for little ones.
I voted, proudly and publicly, for Leave.
I believe there is nothing to fear in trading on World Trade Organisation terms, as we at JCB already do — exporting to, and importing from, dozens of countries around the world.
But this is not about Brexit. Millions of business owners throughout the country feel they are not represented or spoken for.
Polling by Deltapoll recently found that even Tory voters do not think their party is on the side of small business.
For the politicians who listen to these firms, the rewards will be political as well as economic.
I have spent my life working in a family business.
I believe family businesses, of all sizes, are tied to and invested in their communities in a way other firms can never be.
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And I worry that Britain has a model of tax, regulation and politics in which everything is arranged to suit the big firms on the FTSE, not those that might one day hope to replace them.
Whatever the outcome of the Brexit wrangling, we can only succeed long term if we make Britain the best place in the world to start, run and keep a business of your own.
- Lord Bamford is chairman of JCB.
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/britains-prosperity-after-brexit-depends-on-small-family-businesses-as-they-made-britain-the-fifth-largest-economy-in-the-world/
News Pictures Britain’s prosperity after Brexit depends on small family businesses as they made Britain the fifth largest economy in the world
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
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Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
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Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/dk-graphic-page10somestatistics.jpg?strip=all&w=816
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