Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has credited the businesswomen of Swindon with playing a pivotal role in shaping the government's new initiative to bolster small businesses.
During an event at the Workshed – a redeveloped section of the GWR Carriageworks in central Swindon that now houses offices and co-working spaces for small and start-up enterprises – the Prime Minister, alongside Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, unveiled the government's small business strategy.
He highlighted the significance of the location, recalling: "I was in this very same room three years ago when were in opposition, and we were speaking to women entrepreneurs then.
"There was a real buzz in the room and I spoke with some amazing women and we listened to what they told us and I said at the time that if we got into government, we would use what they told us to develop our policies to help small businesses."
He emphasised his return to Swindon as a fulfilment of the commitment he made while previously in opposition.
The Prime Minister revealed that conversations with local businesswomen about the challenges of securing reasonably priced start-up funding had directly influenced the decision to launch start-up loans for 69,000 companies, amounting to £4bn.
Before addressing regional and national media and the local democracy reporter, Sir Keir engaged with members of the Swindon small business community.
He said: "They were pleased to learn that we are going to bring into law penalties for late payment of bills. That was something they said was a real issue – I was staggered to learn 38 small businesses a day go out of business because of late payments.
"And the small business owners I spoke to said it's often the big companies who don't pay on time and that leaves them to carry all the risk.
"We also spoke about business rates – we are going to bring them down and stabilise them for a significant amount of time, and skills. We need to get local colleges in Swindon and Wiltshire equipping young people with the skills local businesses need."
Craig Duff, who operates Nanogreen cleaning and facilities management company, said: "Doing something about late payments is huge for us, so that's very important, as is the business rates review. It looks like they have listened to small businesses."
Fiona Scott, proprietor of media and PR consultancy Scott Media, also had the opportunity to speak with the Prime Minister and Mr Reynolds.
She added: "Skills are so important. Many of us have tried to take on an apprentice, but the local colleges aren't providing young people with the skills we need. And it's often the soft skills you learn doing arts and music subjects."
The initiatives described by the Prime Minister will be enacted through various pieces of legislation.
