Candidates urged to back small businesses

A SMALL business campaign group has called on Glasgow MSPs returned after the election to protect them from further financial hits.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that the virus crisis had hit self-employed people particularly hard.

The group urged politicians to work to shield them after the May election by introducing a new collective insurance approach for self-employed people who were not able to access sick pay throughout the pandemic.

More than 33,000 people in Glasgow are self-employed.

A third of small businesses across Scotland were forced to close as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and thousands more have taken on billions of pounds of government-backed debt.

Hisashi Kuboyama, FSB’s west of Scotland development manager, said: “The coronavirus crisis has hit Scotland’s selfemployed and small business community for six.

“While governments in Edinburgh and London argue they’ve done everything in their power to mitigate the impact of this crisis, there’s no doubt the pandemic will have an enduring impact on this group that will be vital to the recovery.

“There are as many selfemployed people in Glasgow as employees of the council, Glasgow University and Strathclyde University combined. But our representatives at Holyrood haven’t spent enough time discussing how to support and protect 33,100 workers.

“The events of the last year and a half have undermined the strength of self-employed people and the small business community in Glasgow. That’s a real concern, because it’ll be these same operators will be vital to turning around the local economies of places like Shettleston and Drumchapel.

“No matter the colour of their rosette, we’re looking for candidates to pledge to help to get these local firms back on their feet. We need our next local representatives at Holyrood to do everything in their power to give our vital local businesses a fighting chance.”