Wimbledon Business Survey Results
Thank you to all the businesses who took my survey last year. Hearing directly from businesses helps me remain well informed and work on your behalf both locally and in the House of Commons. It also means I can fight to ensure Wimbledon remains a fantastic place to do business.
I was happy to see 71% of businesses reported they increased their staff numbers in the last year, and 92% expected their staff numbers to increase over the next year. These are very welcome trends, and no doubt are a massive contributing factor to Wimbledon’s very low unemployment rate.
Only 19% of businesses reported employing an apprentice, and 13% plan to do so. I would hope this will increase, as apprenticeships are vital to ensure Britain has a highly skilled workforce. I hope that more businesses locally will take the opportunity to benefit from the Government’s drive to increase apprenticeships.
Many businesses who completed the survey told me that they would appreciate more support from Merton Council, particularly in terms of parking, dirty streets, and ab overall a feeling that the Council is not engaging enough with businesses.
Crossrail 2
I know that many businesses are concerned about the impact Crossrail 2’s construction will bring.
Crossrail 2 should bring many benefits to Wimbledon. It will relieve pressure on services to Waterloo, reduce journey times into Central London and beyond, give more local people job opportunities within a 45 minute commute and attract more businesses and jobs to Wimbledon itself by regenerating the town centre.
However, I want to ensure that Crossrail 2 brings as little disruption as possible to Wimbledon during its construction. I believe that TfL’s current route option does not look like the best solution for Wimbledon and will lead to the destruction of much of the town centre.
Residents and businesses have also been understandably frustrated that only one option was presented for consultation. So I have been lobbying TfL to consider and present other options, including a tunnel under Wimbledon Station.
Crossrail 2 could be a fantastic opportunity to regenerate the town centre. To achieve this, a vision for its future is needed, as I said during the election. I will continue to work with the Council and local residents to develop this vision and present it to Crossrail 2.
I want to thank everyone who responded to Crossrail 2’s consultation, and to everyone who came to my public meeting in December. Crossrail 2 will now be considering our responses and will report back soon. I will do all I can to publicise their response.
However, although this consultation is over there will be more in the future as Crossrail 2 develop their plans. I will arrange further public meetings as the plans progress and will continue to stand up for what is best for Wimbledon.
You can read my response to the Crossrail 2 consultation here, where I make it very clear I cannot support the current proposals.
Business Rate Relief
Many businesses reported that business rates are a problem for them. So, I am pleased that the Chancellor last week made the decision to extend small business rate relief. This scheme benefits 600,000 small businesses nationally by either reducing their business rates or making them completely exempt from paying them.
Businesses can claim business rates relief if they use one property and their rateable value is less than £12,000, and businesses with a rateable value of under £6,000 are made exempt from business rates completely. If you are not benefitting from this, do contact Merton Council on [email protected] or 020 8545 3919.
If your property is valued at over £12,000 but under £25,500 in London, your business would not qualify for business rate relief. However, your rates will be calculated using the small business multiplier.
Employment Allowance
I was concerned that 29% of businesses that took the survey did not know about the Employment Allowance. Employers can get up to £2,000 a year off National Insurance bill, thanks to the Government’s Employment Allowance. You can claim Employment Allowance if you are a business or charity paying employers’ Class 1 National Insurance.
You can only claim against Class 1 National Insurance you’ve paid, up to a maximum of £2,000 each tax year. You can still claim the allowance if you pay less than £2,000 a year. To claim through payroll software, put yes in the Employment Allowance Indicator field when you send an Employment Payment Summary to HMRC. If you use HMRC’s Basic PAYE tools, select the employer, click change employer details, and select yes in the Employment Allowance indicator field.