'Medway Liberal Democrats support Small Business Saturday on 3rd December'

Small Business Saturday is coming up on December 3rd. This is an annual event that encourages people to shop local and support the small, independent businesses that make up our high street.

Local businesses have faced enormous challenges over the past few years. First with Brexit, then Covid and now with the economic turmoil that we currently face.

Christmas is the busiest shopping period of the year and it's important to try to support small, independent, local businesses at this time especially - but also all year round as well.

Some local shops even offer discounts and offers on Small Business Saturday and you can find out which shops are participating in Medway here at https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/. But regardless, the Lib Dems will be making a very special effort to shop locally this year and we hope you can do the same.

Businesses face an even greater pressure over the next few months as they are not covered by the energy price cap, meaning their energy bills could rise by as much as 400%.

Liberal Democrats are calling for urgent action to support businesses that otherwise would struggle to survive. We are calling on the Government to make grants of up to £50,000 available for all small and medium sized businesses to cover the increase in energy costs this year - to be funding by closing tax breaks for banks.

This is the right and fair thing to do in order to support our hundreds of local businesses in Medway - and the thousands of local jobs that rely on them.

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/

Small Business Saturday is coming up on Saturday 3rd December 2022. Small Business Saturday has been running in the UK for over 10 years now and has become a major event. During Small Business Saturday 2020 over £1.1 billion was spent in small, local shops!

This is an opportunity to promote local independent businesses and encourage residents to shop local and shop small during the busiest shopping period of the year in the run up to Christmas.

Small businesses have faced an unprecedented set of challenges over the past few years. First with Brexit, then Covid and now the economic turmoil of this year. Businesses are not covered by the energy price cap and many could see their energy bills increase by 400% - and possibly even more. Now is the time to be speaking to small businesses in our area about these challenges - learning from their experiences and seeing how we can support them.