Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
With elections coming up on May 6, we’re taking a closer look at the manifestos to help you decide who to vote for.
For those of you in Wales, here is a round-up of the election pledges of each party that are geared towards small business owners.
Labour

Masterplans will be drawn up for towns and high streets, including a register of empty buildings and small businesses given help to move into empty shops
Protect more than 165,000 jobs by providing the most generous business support scheme in the UK
Use the £500m Wales Flexible Investment Fund to support economic recovery and expand the Development Bank of Wales’ patient capital funds to provide long-term lending to small and medium sized enterprises, entrepreneurs and start-ups. Increase the use of equity stakes in business support. Secure the creation of a Community Bank for Wales, supporting its growth so it has 30 branches across Wales over the next decade
Develop a Backing Local Firms Fund to support local businesses. Provide greater support for worker buyouts and, with the cooperative sector, seek to double the number of employee-owned businesses
Change the way people work, rather than commuting to the office every day, will seek

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
We’ve got the 2021 election in Scotland coming up on May 6.
To help you decide who to vote for, we’ve summed up all of Scotland’s political party pledges geared towards small businesses.
SNP

Continue the Small Business Bonus, benefiting more than 100,000 businesses. Invest £100m to help SMEs get the right digital skills and equipment
Maintain Business Growth Accelerator which removes rates liabilities for the first 12 months after occupation of previously empty property.
Establish a new £10m fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the four-day working week. Use these learnings to consider implementing a four-day working week as and when Scotland has full control over employment rights. Identify additional employment rights and assess the economic impact of moving to a four-day working week
Create a dedicated Women’s Business Centre to provide financial support, advice and training to women looking to start or grow their business. This will be backed by £50m over the course of the parliament
Create a new, £20m Rural Entrepreneur Fund – this will provide grants of up to £10,000 to support the creation of 2,000 new businesses
Implement the recommendations of the Logan Review to raise our tech sector to world-class status including

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