40% of Scots expect more small business closures due to national insurance hike

• 40% of Scots of expect an increase in the number of closures among small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in their local area because of the government’s decision to raise employers’ NICs.
• A further 55% of people expect prices to rise at local SMEs as a result of the tax hike.
• Ahead of Small Business Saturday on the 7th December, the Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to “urgently rethink” their tax hike and scrap it for SMEs.

Two fifths of Scots expect to see an increase in the number of SMEs closing in their local areas as a result of the NIC hike by the government, new polling commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The polling also showed that more than half (55%) of Scots think that costs will increase at local SMEs with almost one in five (17%) expecting them to increase a lot. 37% of Scots also expect the number of jobs available at local SMEs to fall too.

A quarter of Scots (25%) said that they thought the tax hike would affect their spending habits at SMEs.

Of these people, more than half (53%) said that they would be cutting back on their Christmas shopping as a result, 45% said that they would visit their local high streets less and more than a third (34%) said that they would shop at larger stores.

The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to “urgently rethink” the tax hike and scrap it for SMEs after voting against the rise this week on Tuesday and tabling their own amendment to block it.

It comes ahead of Small Business Saturday on 7th December, which is a day to celebrate small businesses and to encourage the public to support them.

Liberal Democrat Scottish affairs spokesperson Christine Jardine MP said:

“Small businesses are the engine of our economy and the backbone of our communities. We need to be doing everything we can to support them.

“Many small businesses across Scotland have already sounded the alarm over the government’s misguided national insurance hike, and this research lays bare just how worried people are about the damage it will do to local employers.

“After years of the Conservatives' economic vandalism, this is the last thing these businesses need. The new government needs to urgently scrap this jobs tax and instead focus on how they can help small businesses, not burden them with more costs.”