Government publishes its Small Business Plan

4 Aug 2025 12:49 PM

Headline commitments include legislation to end late payments to SMEs. 

Yesterday, the UK Government released their long-awaited Small Business Plan. techUK welcomes this as a vocal statement of Government support for SMEs, which recognises the importance of digitisation for boosting SME productivity.  

We would now urge the government to progress on delivering the pledges made in the Plan, alongside those other strategies published in 2025.  

The Small Business Plan, and the policies contained within it, is built around five key pillars: 

1. Future-Proofing Business Skills  

• Pledge to launch a new Digital Adoption pilots and work with industry to improve SME tech skills.  
• Committing to fund leadership and management training and creating a new Business Mentoring Council.  
• A promise to back the next generation of young entrepreneurs by widening access to enterprise education and launching a new ‘Youth Entrepreneur’ King’s Awards for Enterprise award.  
• £1.2bn more a year for skills SMEs need.  

2. Fixing the Fundamentals   

• Legislation to be tabled to end the late payments, which costs the UK economy £11bn per year.   
• Modernisation of the tax and customs system to reduce businesses' costs and save time.   
• Support for firms to decarbonise, alongside measures to lower energy costs and increased training for retrofit jobs.  
• Aim to reduce regulatory admin costs by 25% by the end of the Parliament. 

3. Unlocking Access to Finance  

• Pledge to offer 69,000 Start-Up Loans, including new ‘green’ loans, that come with a business mentor.   
• A longer-term commitment to the British Business Bank’s Growth Guarantee Scheme.  
• A £3bn increase in British Business Bank funding to help lenders offer more small business loans.  
• £340m for regional equity investment to improve access to capital beyond London.  
• Pledge to create a Code of Conduct on personal guarantees for government-guaranteed loans.  

4. Backing the Everyday Economy  

• A new licensing framework for local authorities has been promised, aiming to make it easier to set up or modify cafes & bars.  
• Pledge of new High Streets and Growth Incubators to back local businesses.  
• Transformation of Business Rates, with permanently lower rates for many Retail, Hospitality and Leisure properties from April 2026 through higher rates on warehouses.  

5. Opening Up Opportunities  

• Creating a Business Growth Service, which aims to simplify finding advice and support, including a new streamlined digital offer – business.gov.uk.  
• Making SMEs a national priority for public sector and government contracts, with Departments setting higher SME targets.   
• A pledge to support under-represented entrepreneurs, including through better data collection.  
• Expansion of UK Export Finance’s capacity by £20bn.  

techUK’s view 

techUK welcomes the Plan as a strong signal of the UK Government’s commitment to supporting small businesses. In particular, the comprehensive late payment reforms – including shorter payment terms and enhanced enforcement through the Small Business Commissioner – address critical pain points for many of our members.  

techUK will be hosting a members-only webinar with the new Small Business Commissioner Emma Jones CBE to hear next steps on tackling late payments and offering a chance for our SME members to feed in their thoughts directly. You can sign up here. 

We're particularly encouraged to see several commitments that align with techUK's recommendations, including the Plan's focus on supporting digital adoption and SME digital skills. This is welcome ahead of the government’s response to the adoption of e-invoicing and roll out of further proposals for Making Tax Digital. techUK continue to call for the mandating of e-invoicing for VAT businesses as a necessary step to secure the UK’s competitiveness and digital adoption ambitions.  

Similar recommendations that have been adopted include measures to increase access to affordable finance, as well backing the next generation of young entrepreneurs. We are particularly pleased to see the announcement on Scale-Up Summits as a way to champion high-growth businesses, and a bolstered mandate for the British Business Bank. These will address the everyday challenges our members face – along with focusing on opportunities for our members’ growth.  

The Plan comes as part of a flurry of Government strategies over the Summer, and some of the announcements are rehashes of what’s come before, such as the 25% reduction in administrative costs first announced in the June Industrial Strategy. 

Instead of further repetition, techUK wants to see the Government pick up the pace of progress in delivering their announced plans, which will be of benefit to techUK’s members, the wider tech sector and the UK.  

techUKstand ready to work with the Government to ensure the tech sector, and our over 600 SME members, play their full role in the Government’s announced plans. You can keep to up to date with upcoming SME activity and events via the link here.