It is the private sector which will unlock the investment, growth and opportunities of the future.
That is why a tax system that incentivises business to invest is at the heart of our economic plan.
We introduced the biggest business tax cut in modern British history, which hundreds of business leaders have described as the ‘single most transformational’ measure for growth and investment.
So more businesses can benefit, we will look to extend our ‘full expensing’ policy to leasing, once the fiscal conditions allow.
And we will not raise corporation tax.
For the very smallest businesses, the four million people who are self-employed, we will abolish the main rate of National Insurance entirely by the end of the next Parliament.
We will back the risk takers and entrepreneurs who help drive our economy.
Small and medium-sized businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and we are making the UK the best place in the world to start or grow a business.
We have great foundations: world-class talent,
an internationally envied legal system
and a business-friendly regulatory environment.
We want small businesses to get a bigger share of public contracts and have improved the public sector procurement system to that end.
We have made it easier and cheaper for small businesses to hire an apprentice.
And we have taken 28,000 small businesses out of paying VAT altogether by raising the VAT registration threshold to £90,000.
In the next Parliament, we will deliver a ten point plan to support SMEs:
and by exploring the creation of Regional Mutual Banks.
4. Take more companies out of the scope of burdensome reporting requirements.
Making use of freedoms granted by Brexit, we will lift the employee threshold allowing more companies to be considered medium-sized.
This is expected to save small businesses at least one million hours of admin per year.
We will not increase Capital Gains Tax.
building on our creation of the Small Business Commissioner with powers to tackle unfavourable payment practices.
A Conservative Government will continue to invest in the digital, transport and energy infrastructure needed for businesses to grow.
We have transformed our digital infrastructure by rolling out gigabit broadband to over a million hard to reach premises, helping to deliver high-speed internet to over 80% of the country.
and to keep the UK at the forefront of adopting and developing 6G.
Every penny saved in the North or Midlands will be spent there.
Savings from our new plan for Euston, which will see 10,000 new homes built,
have freed up £6.5 billion for transport across the rest of the country.
Labour has no plan.
They neither support the second phase of HS2 nor our alternative package of investment, meaning they won’t back schemes their own local leaders say will transform their areas.
This will cut congestion and upgrade local bus and train stations.
We will bring forward funding into this financial year and the next.
We will scrap rules that stop Mayors investing in strategic roads.
Deliver our plan for Northern Powerhouse Rail bringing more frequent trains, more capacity and faster journeys.
Savings from HS2 enable us to fund electrification to Hull and build a new station in Bradford.
This will improve journey times and deliver more frequent rail services at 50 stations, benefiting over seven million people.
We will upgrade the line between Newark and Nottingham to halve journey times between Nottingham and Leeds.
We are committed to all the schemes set out in the Network North Command Paper.
This comes on top of £44 billion of funding for Network Rail over the next five years and our investment in the Transpennine Route Upgrade, laying the foundations for Northern Powerhouse Rail.
and support the growth of the rail freight sector.
We have invested £40 billion in England’s strategic roads between 2015 and 2025, with further investment to come in the next Road Investment Strategy, ensuring we can deliver major roads including the Lower Thames Crossing and the A303.
This is alongside the road schemes set out in our Network North plan, including the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham.
and delivering the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate to support manufacturers to safeguard skilled British jobs.
We will support domestic flights including through Public Service Obligations, protecting vital routes within the UK, including to islands and remote areas.
Recognising the current challenges with cross-Solent transport, we will establish a review to explore all options to provide more choice and drive down fares.
We can only achieve our infrastructure ambitions if we continue to simplify the planning system to make it easier to build, faster.
while enabling the building of new homes, new prisons and new energy schemes.
Along with the reforms to the EU’s bureaucratic environmental impact assessment regime that we have already started, these changes will speed up local and national infrastructure planning systems.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will accelerate human progress in the 21st century, just as the steam engine and electricity did in the 19th century.
The UK is well positioned to spearhead this transformation and is already leading global work on AI safety.
Over the last 14 years, the Conservatives have turned the UK into a science and innovation superpower.