
On Saturday I was proud to be out and about on our high streets to mark Small Business Saturday, a campaign I’ve promoted every year since it began.
Small Business Saturday celebrates small business success and encourages the public to shop local. Growing up above our small family shop in Osterley, I know how hard our small businesses work.
Businesses like the amazing family-run Richardson’s of Feltham, now in its third generation, Enjoy Café, and Wink Spa are the lifeblood of our community. It was great to spend the morning meeting business owners, hearing about the challenges they face, and discussing how we can work together to build a prosperous future.
Fourteen years of Conservative government have failed Britain’s high streets. Over 6,000 pubs and 9,000 bank branches closed down, and almost 10,000 local shops shut in 2023 alone. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has estimated that late payments lead to the closure of over 50,000 businesses per year.
It’s time for change – and that’s why the new Labour Government has pledged to tackle the scourge of late payments that cost businesses thousands.
I’m also proud that our Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has announced a new Business Growth Service. This will bring all support for small and medium-sized businesses together under a single, trusted banner, giving firms an easy path to the help they need.
The Government is also taking action on shoplifting, an issue that local shops often raise with me. Earlier this year, the British Retail Consortium reported that the overall cost of retail crime, including crime prevention measures, amounted to £3.3bn from 2022-2023. We are introducing a new, specific offence of assaulting a retail worker, and we are reversing the law brought in by the Tories that has meant that shop thefts under £200 have not been investigated.
I’m pleased that we are also helping small businesses access loans, with the Chancellor’s Budget providing £250 million to the British Business Bank’s small business loans programmes.
Labour’s number one mission is to kickstart economic growth – to create jobs, get more money into people’s pockets and make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business. Safe and vibrant town centres are key to that mission.
I am proud to continue to work with so many amazing small businesses across Feltham and Heston, and I encourage all residents to support our businesses by shopping local.

