Get Britain growing: Powering small businesses

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) employ two-thirds of the UK's working population and generated £2.1 trillion in turnover in 2022. If we can help SMEs to grow, we can boost the economy. 

But small businesses are facing an incredibly tough economic backdrop. And it’s clear that the biggest challenge facing the country right now is how we boost growth and productivity, and create long-term, sustainable prosperity.

Technology can play a significant role in addressing some of the most pressing issues faced by small businesses by helping them go digital, get paid and get capital. Digital payments are also key to providing vital data that can help businesses understand their customers and their own operations better, as well as opening access to overseas markets.

No organisation can solve this challenge alone. Partnerships between industry, communities, business organisations and policymakers are essential to ensuring small and micro business owners can reach their potential, and the economy can reap the benefits.

That’s why, as part of our Get Britain Growing series, we’ve joined forces with some of Britain's most innovative businesses and thinkers to make recommendations that will help small businesses thrive and boost growth. These policies will particularly help long-underserved groups, like female and ethnic minority founders.

In this second report in the series, we've teamed up with the British Independent Retailers Association, Be the Business, Digital Boost, Enterprise Nation, Soldo, Tide and Diana Chrouch, special advisor to the All Party Parliamentary Group on ethnic minority businesses to set out how to get Britain growing by supporting small businesses and backing payments innovation.