As BTC inquiry closes, what will ministers take away for the small business strategy?
In the fourth and final evidence hearing of its inquiry into the UK’s new Small business strategy the Business and Trade Committee to the blight of illegal trading on the high street, before questions to the Minister for Small Business and Economic Transformation on how the strategy will be rolled out. Is the Government ready to address the issues facing hundreds of businesses the Committee has heard from up and down the country in recent months, and help them maximise their contribution to the growth mission?
Meeting details
This inquiry has repeatedly heard evidence of the prevalence of illegal trading on the high street – whether tax evasion, cash-intensive businesses like barber shops that act as fronts for money laundering, the sale of illegal goods or illegal working and modern slavery – that undercuts legitimate businesses and drives consumers away from town centres.
Together, tax avoidance and tax evasion by small businesses is now costing the Exchequer an estimated £.7.5 billion a year – also making it impossible for compliant businesses on the high street to compete. The National Crime Agency, giving evidence today, has said there is a “realistic possibility that over £100 billion is laundered through and within the UK or UK-registered corporate structures each year”.
And the problems appear to be growing. The number of illegal vapes removed from sale in England grew by 59% over the last year to 1.2 million.
But the Committee has big questions about the skills and capacity of the national corporate register Companies House and the National Crime Agency to prevent, detect and deter a growing category of crime that some communities feel is taking over their town centres. Alongside National Trading Standards they’ll face questions on the true scale of the problem, why it’s growing, and how successful they’re being in tackling it.
In the second half of the session the Committee turns to the DBT minister and officials with questions on the evidence it’s heard and how it fits both with the UK Government’s new plan for small and medium sized businesses and Department plans to roll it out.
Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Britain’s high streets are being hollowed out by illegal trading that is driving honest businesses to the wall. We’ve heard evidence of tax evasion, money laundering and modern slavery hiding in plain sight - and too often the state is simply outgunned. Ministers now face a clear choice: build the enforcement muscle to protect legitimate firms, or accept a growing lawlessness that threatens the future of our town centres.”