Tim Farron is using the first full day of conference to announce plans for a so-called start-up allowance for entrepreneurs launching new small businesses. The allowance would be worth £2600 over the first six months (£100 a week) after they set up their new business. It comes as part of a leadership focus on building upon the economic credibility won by our five years spent in government.
Tim said:
Liberal Democrats believe that if you have a dream you should be supported to fulfil it. Those who take the chance to set out on their own and create a business should be celebrated and supported.
Lib Dems recognise the courage of those who seek to create something new.
While Labour have said they now want to strip Government support for businesses and the Tories focus on giving tax cuts to giant corporations, we want to focus on entrepreneurs and small business seeking to grow.
Here are some more details of the policy, which it is estimated would cost £26m a year and would be funded by reversing the most recent reduction to corporation tax:
The Start Up Allowance would be open to anyone starting a new business with a loan from the start-up loans facility, which provides loans and mentoring to help new business owners develop their business plan.
In Government Vince Cable and the Lib Dems ensured people who wanted to start a business got loans to help with start-up costs and mentoring support through the £1bn British Business Bank. It was a key Liberal Democrat demand extracted in exchange for the Tories failed Shares For Rights scheme.
We also created the New Enterprise Allowance – which meant those in receipt of JSA, or another out of work benefit who became self-employed, got an allowance worth up to £1,274 to help pay living costs – effectively continuing the benefit payments for the first few months while the business grew.
This new policy builds on these offerings.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
High Fell leaflet watch (2)
No, Leave didn't win the Brexit referendum because of Northern working class voters
Two new Makerfield by-election polls gives Burnham 5 and 12 point leads
Reform under water
Geoffrey Payne
Richard Whelan
David Raw
Tom Reeve
10 Comments
Great sentiments from Tim. Solidly liberal and to be applauded. Farage better than Corbyn’s lukewarm socialism.
Now this is what I call sound economics.
When I write that our economic policies should flow from our mainstream Liberal Democrat philosophy, this is exactly what I mean.
Absolutely no need to add a divisive think tank-style ‘economic liberalism’ label for us to work for Liberal economics.
I should also like us to call for the setting up of a mutualised national investment bank to assist in the funding of SME’s, Cooperatives, Green and other socially beneficial ventures.
Depending upon its nature, I would certainly bank with or invest in it.
This would also fit in with a popular ‘common ground’ rather than a meaningless centre ground approach.
At first I didn’t like this policy, but now that it is linked to JSA I do. I’ve thought for a long time that it is unfair how if you want to start your own business you lose your JSA and related benefits straight away.
I’ve not claimed any benefits for about six years, but at times when trying to look for self-employed work I felt I was just as entitled to JSA as others, but didn’t get any.
This sounds like the 1980s “Enterprise Allowance Scheme” and “Business Start up Scheme”, which (give or take) meant that unemployed people founding a business continued to receive unemployment benefit for the first sixth months. Wikipedia has some details. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Allowance_Scheme).
I think we have to be very very careful indeed before encouraging more people to go self-employed. The evidence in the last few years is that people often do it because there is simply no other way out – and pay for that decision with the poverty that this allowance is trying to ameliorate. Unless very carefully managed, the policy could well backfire (if we were ever called on to implement it, of course!)
Tim13, some people love being self-employed. I’m not too interested in the Start-up Allowance, but the New Enterprise Allowance sounds good.
This is excellent. Distinctive, credible and solidly liberal. More of tgis, please!
OMG it didn’t take Tim very long to become centralistic and forget who makes policy in this party. Has he proposed a conference motion setting out his wishes? When will the sovereign body (i.e. conference) get to discuss it?
From his actions when he was President I am not surprised, but I did wish he wouldn’t fall back on this type of leadership.
Why not have similar incentives for people coming off benefits and getting back to work. A fear many people have, at the lower paid end of the job market, is that they will be worse off in work and they are anxious about what happens if they are not deemed suitable during a probationary period. Unless things have radically changed since I was a probation officer (10 years ago!) a return to work after a lengthy period of unemployment can be fraught with anxiety. It takes courage to step away from the benefits system. Would an overlap period where someone continued receiving benefits for a period (perhaps 3 months) be a really good incentive to find and keep a job?
I’m presuming the 6 month x £100 a week is going to be more costly to implement than a 3 month benefits safety net for people returning to work?
And I’m assuming this offer to small business entrepreneurs is a one off offer and someone couldn’t repeatedly apply for Start up Allowances (another business idea in another applicant’s name … You get the gist … There are some wheelers and dealers out there!)