Staffordshire and Cheshire's small businesses talk priorities ahead of General Election

With exactly a month to go until the General Election, we've been finding out what matters to business owners across Staffordshire and Cheshire.

New research by Cheshire-based Together has revealed that most UK small and medium enterprises would like the next Government to put the following top of their priority list:

• Reduce energy bills (49%)
• Increase tax breaks (39%)
• Improving access to finance (35%)
• Boost investment in the SME growth sector (33%)
• Remove red tape around business loan applications (26%)

Lucie runs Peter's Tavern on Piccadilly in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. She said: "One of the first things I'd want sorting out would be homelessness, and the homeless people around Hanley city centre.

"There is people sleeping around outside our pub all the time. They even keep stealing our ashtrays and stuff, so that's definitely something that needs sorting out."

She said she'd like the next government to prioritise investment into policing and public safety, in particular increasing the visibility of officers in places like town centres.

"You also don't see officers patrolling around here at all. I've been working here in Hanley nine months and I've met police walking around Piccadilly maybe three times in nine months. In Hanley if it's not safe - the people will not come anyway. So we need to make sure safety - for women, men, anyone, is priority."

Tony Callaghan runs a number of pubs, bars and restaurants across Cheshire and the North West. He said: "It's vital that the next government work with the hospitality sector, work at getting us back together, work at making our businesses successful. We want to make them successful and we need the help of the new government in whatever form that comes.

"I've been in industry a long long time and you see some of the newcomers coming in and they lose everything. And it's heart-breaking to see it when they're just out there trying to make a living."

The new research also found on average, UK small and medium enterprises would like to invest £450,000 in their business over the next two years.

Many claim to still be experiencing barriers, in particular surrounding growth and expansion, with the biggest ones being:

• A lack of investment breaks and benefits from local and national government (27%)

• Overly cautious banks (23%)

• Difficulty accessing finance for specialist lenders (23%)

Ryan Etchells, Chief Commercial Officer at Together, has said the sector will be carefully weighing up Sunak and Starmer’s pledges as it continues to face tough cost and labour challenges.

"Given that securing real economic growth will surely be a central plank of all parties’ election promises, we need to see concrete plans for the business community especially when it comes to providing adequate resource and support for SME recovery and future growth. Unlocking access to finance is certainly one element, but fundamentally it will take lenders, developers, and innovative funders to work together and ensure that – whatever the political outcome – that promises are not left empty and that a course is charted which provides in full what’s needed most."

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