Local firms in Redditch need helping hand to move out of recession
Karen urges practical steps to promote enterprise and new business

Karen added her voice to calls to help local firms and entrepreneurs in Redditch get up running and grow new business. More firms have gone bust during this recession than in any previous downturn. The latest Government figures show that in the last quarter, across our area 13 companies faced being wound up and 1289 people faced bankruptcy.

New Conservative proposals would:

•                End Labour’s practice of pushing thousands of businesses into bankruptcy over small amounts of unpaid taxes. Jobs would be saved and entrepreneurs would be given the support they deserve. The statutory threshold over which the Government can petition to make a business insolvent would be raised.

•                Boost social mobility by ending the unfair restrictions on people starting a business in social housing. Social tenants could become entrepreneurs, creating new jobs and opportunities. Measures to prevent noise and nuisance would remain in place.

•                Make it easier for people to set up new enterprises by cutting the time it takes to open a new business. Britain should become the fastest place in the world to start a business. Under Labour, it takes twice as long to start one in the UK as in the USA, Denmark or Hong Kong. The number of forms needed to register a new business will be cut, moving towards a ‘one-click’ registration model.

These changes come on top of Conservative plans to reduce small company corporation tax rates to 20p; to make small business rate relief automatic in England, saving small firms up to £1,260 per year; and to abolish tax on the jobs created by new businesses in the first two years of a Conservative Government.

Karen said:

“To move out of recession, local firms in Redditch need a strong helping hand to help create new jobs and expand their business. Conservatives will remove the obstacles in the way of new firms and stop the taxman kicking local firms when they’re down.

“But the message from Labour Ministers is ‘don’t start a business, don’t buy your home, don’t try and leave money to your children, don’t try and get on’.  They’ve made it so difficult to employ people, so difficult to start a business.  We can’t go on like this, and it’s time for change.

I am looking forward to Lord David Trimble meeting and listening to local business on friday when he visits Redditch and meets many of our local employers”

Don’t stop the music – village halls, churches and charities face new tax
Government to hit local voluntary groups across Redditch with new music charges

Churches, village halls, charity shops and sports clubs across Redditch face a new £20 million tax from Gordon Brown’s Government, Karen warned this week. In the small print of obscure new regulations, the Government is abolishing charities’ and voluntary groups’ long-standing exemption from music licensing rules – hitting them with unexpected new bills just for holding events with recorded music or for playing a radio.

To date, voluntary groups have not had to pay for a so-called “PPL” performance rights licence in order to play recorded music. This exemption reflects the public benefit that such organisations provide, but this is now being abolished by the Government.

This will affect church worship, charity discos, tea dances, youth clubs, dancing groups, sports clubs and even charity shops which have a radio in their staff room. The changes are being imposed by Peter Mandelson’s Whitehall empire. The new levy will come into effect in April 2010 once the new regulations are ratified by Parliament. Conservatives are opposing these changes and standing up for local voluntary groups.

The Government admits that the new levies will cost voluntary groups £20 million a year. Some organisations will “cease playing music” because they cannot afford a licence, and it will hit a quarter of a million organisations – 140,000 charities, 6,750 charity shops, 66,440 sports clubs, 4,000 community buildings, 5,000 rural halls and 45,000 religious buildings.

These new levies are on top of bureaucratic rules imposed by the Licensing Act 2003, which requires expensive ‘premises licences’ for village halls to hold regular small-scale social functions, and which has imposed new red tape to play unamplified live music.

Karen said:

“This is another Labour assault on the fabric of British community life. Having effectively shut down post offices and local pubs across Redditch, Labour’s Whitehall bureaucrats now have our village halls, scout huts, charity shops and churches in their sights. This is a heartless tax on community buildings and charities. The Government should think again and don’t stop the music.”