Rishi Sunak visits small businesses in Ipswich
The Chancellor has been meeting local businesses in the town
Last updated 10th May 2022
The Chancellor is visiting Ipswich today to meet with local businesses.
He's using his visit to underline support for smaller businesses and their importance to UK economy on visit to Ipswich.
The Chancellor has been chatting to shop owners in the town.
Helen Whately, who's Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and was in the town with Mr Sunak, told us more about what they're doing to help businesses bounce back from the pandemic: "So we have the Help to Grow management course for businesses to send someone on a training scheme.
"And the other part is Help to Grow Digital, which is a voucher of up to £5000 which businesses can use to get software, ecommerce software, financial accounting software."
She added: "It's part of our plan to raise the skills overall of people across small and medium sized businesses in the UK, which are the real engine of the economy.
"We know we want to support them, and help them become more profitable and expand further."
Watch: We're in Ipswich where the Chancellor is visiting small businesses
Cathy Frost owns Loveone in the town told us what it was like meeting the Chancellor: "It was interesting, bit surreal, but good that we were on his tour of Ipswich.
"I think he was here for a meeting and he popped into a few of our local businesses to have a chat about what it's like at the moment."
Cathy told us what she and Mr Sunak spoke about: "I told him how important the community is to a town like Ipswich.
"I had a little bit of a moan about the corporation tax which we have to pay on our community interest company, which we run on behalf of the community.
"He did take that point on board, I hope."
More support is needed
We caught up with owners of the plant-based cafe Hullabaloo, Jennie Debenham & Jon Halls, after the Chancellor's visit.
They were among many local business owners who told us they would like to see more help from the Treasury, especially with the cost of living crisis at the moment.