A busy few weeks of engagement at Downing Street

By Derek Cribb , CEO at IPSE

The Spring Budget is likely to represent one of the last opportunities for the Chancellor to woo the self-employed ahead of an election later this year. Ahead of this, we at IPSE have been right at the centre of discussions about removing barriers to growth and how to ultimately embrace and unleash the vast potential of the sector.

Of course, for many, any attempt to win over the self-employed electorate may well be seen as a cynical electoral ploy after years of government policy that has had less than a positive impact on the sector.

Nonetheless, IPSE continues to make the case for the sector at the very highest levels of government and remains the only dedicated voice for the self-employed at Westminster and beyond. In fact, IPSE has sent representatives to Downing Street on three occasions in as many months.

I wanted to take the time to update you on these conversations, the progress of our campaigning efforts and our plans for influencing political parties ahead of the forthcoming election later this year.

Conversations on Managed Service Company legislation

Last week, I had the privilege of representing IPSE members and the wider self-employed community at the inaugural quarterly meeting of the small business representative organisations at Downing Street (or the SME BRO’s for those cool enough).

Many of you will now be familiar with the devastating impact of these Managed Service Company (MSC) investigations. We have around 50 IPSE members caught up in this nightmare and we continue to actively support these members through this with the help of our tax advisers, Markel.

For more information on the threat of these MSC investigations and an update on the current status of these cases, we’re teaming up with Markel in a few weeks for an event on the legislation.

We’ve previously launched a letter-writing campaign to raise awareness amongst MPs and this seems to have had an impact as the Financial Secretary was already well-aware of these investigations and our concerns when I raised this issue with him last week.

The Financial Secretary has kindly agreed to have a follow-up meeting to discuss these concerns in more detail and I will make sure to update members on these conversations in the coming months.

All eyes on the budget

The meeting also proved to be a useful opportunity to talk through IPSE’s core asks for the upcoming budget. These include rethinking the IR35 reforms and increasing the VAT and trading allowance thresholds to ￡100,000 and ￡5,000 respectively.

Whilst Ministers remained understandably tight-lipped about the contents of the budget, IPSE will continue to press the need for reform in these key areas that, we believe, would re-incentivise self-employment for many and boost the UK’s economic fortunes.

The IPSE Policy Team will be watching the contents of the budget carefully before delivering a webinar the following day for all IPSE members, outlining how the budget is going to affect you as a self-employed individual.

We’ll also be issuing our usual immediate reaction to the budget to media outlets, which you’ll be able to find in our newsletter the following day.

Engagement with political parties ahead of the election

With a general election likely in November or December (barring any surprise announcements in the next few weeks), IPSE will continue to engage with government and opposition parties to make these exact points.

I firmly believe it’s vital that any future government recognises the vital contribution of this dynamic cohort and embraces the sector in their decision-making.

We’ve begun work on IPSE’s manifesto for the 2024 election and the IPSE Policy and Research Committee have already played an important role in the design of these policy positions.

If you have any further ideas of what you want to see included in the IPSE manifesto, we’d love to hear your thoughts at [email protected].