Self-Employment: Growth since 1979 (Hansard, 20 June 1990)

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, since 1979 the number of people self-employed has risen by more than 70 per cent. to 3.3 million in December 1989.

The Viscount of Oxfuird
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for an expected but nonetheless welcome Answer. Can he indicate whether the growth was spread equally between women and men?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, during the same period the number of self-employed women more than doubled.

§ Baroness Turner of Camden
My Lords, in view of the high failure rate among small businesses, can the Minister tell the House what action the Government have taken or are taking in order to advise people who become self-employed?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, we have a range of schemes designed to help small businesses; for example, the enterprise allowance scheme, the loan guarantee scheme, the enterprise initiative and a variety of other government-backed schemes. They are designed to help and advise small businesses on how to become more successful.

§ Lord Renton
My Lords, of those various government initiatives which have been so helpful in enabling small businesses to start up, can the Minister say which has been the most effective in creating fresh activity among small businesses?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, I cannot point to one scheme in particular and say that it has been the most successful. However, the Government have been most successful in helping small businesses by creating a stable business environment, lowering taxation and having less government red tape.

Lord Winstanley
My Lords, among the helpful measures introduced by the Government, does the Minister include the uniform business rate?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, the uniform aspect of the business rate will be extremely helpful to small businesses in enabling them to budget for future rate increases.

Lord Oram
My Lords, do the figures which the Minister has given include those workers who are collectively self-employed in workers' co-operative societies? Is he aware that, having been thrown out 924 of work as a result of the Government's economic policy, many thousands of workers decided to get together in groups to form their own co-operative societies? That success was largely inspired by the Co-operative Development Agency. Is it not therefore regrettable that the Government are winding up that agency?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, I am glad that people have had the initiative to set themselves up in businesses of their own.

§ Lord Renton
My Lords, can my noble friend say to what extent that welcome development has taken place in rural areas compared with urban areas?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, there has been a good regional spread of self-employment growth of approximately 100 per cent. in the South-West to just under 50 per cent. in the northern region.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, the Minister gave a figure for the increase during the past decade. Can he indicate how many of those people were involved in manufacturing industries? How does he relate what he says to the fact that during the past 12 months an additional 40,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing industries? How many of those people were self-employed?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, people who are self-employed cover the full range of business activities.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that in addition to the number of people now described as self-employed, for a variety of reasons—some of which are not very good —there has also been a notable increase in the number of part-time employees? Warnings have been given by both the CBI and the TUC that that is not a healthy situation and they ask that it should have no deleterious effect on research and all forms of scientific investigation which are necessary for British industry.

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, the noble Lord is not quite correct in what he says because less than one in six of self-employed people work part-time. In recent years the growth has been strongest among full-time self-employed people.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, I am not talking about part-time self-employed people; I am talking about people who at one time were working full-time and who now, because they cannot find such work, have to be satisfied with a part-time job.

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, the Question deals with self-employed people. In any case, part-time work sometimes suits people very well.

§ Baroness Nicol
My Lords, is it not the case that the number of self-employed who have become bankrupt has risen steadily since the early 1980s? Can the Minister tell us whether those people go back onto the unemployment register or are they a helpful statistic for the Government?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, we do not separate self-employed business failures from other kinds of business failures. However, I can tell the noble Baroness that on VAT statistics generally, in 1989 early indications showed that there was an increase of 1,500 VAT registrations per week.

§ Lord Glenamara
My Lords, can the noble Lord say what has been the reduction in self-employed people in the agricultural industry?

§ Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, no.