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Posted: Mon 20th Jul 2026
7 min read
Andy Burnham has become prime minister, three weeks after Keir Starmer announced he'd stand down. He arrives in Downing Street promising good growth in every postcode.
For small business founders, the test of the new government is simple.
It's whether the support small businesses were promised keeps coming, and whether the new prime minister's own pledges turn into delivery.
Here's what Burnham has said, what Enterprise Nation wants to see and what it means for your business.
Small businesses featured in his pitch for the leadership, and his business rates offer is the most detailed part.
He's promised to:
abolish business rates for cafés, shops and hairdressers
cut rates by 20% for pubs
raise the rates-free threshold from £12,000 to £18,000, with tapered relief extended from £15,000 to £21,000
Burnham has said he'd fund this through higher business rates on warehouses and large out-of-town developments.
Burnham has pledged to apply social value weighting to all eligible public contracts so British-based companies are in a better position to win them.
He's also spoken of using procurement to support British industry and small business.
He wants to help every area establish a Good Growth Fund, pooling public and private investment locally so start-ups and scale-ups can access money closer to home.
Burnham also intends to make Britain the "Innovation Nation" of the next decade, backing scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs and creatives, with start-ups and scale-ups carrying the innovation-led approach.
On skills, Burnham has promised to end a school system configured entirely around the university route, with a much greater supply of 45-day work placements and apprenticeships.
On tax, the picture is less settled. Burnham has been reported as saying he'd consider cutting employers' National Insurance.
However, last week his team said that he's committed to the manifesto on tax. One to watch rather than one to bank.
CEO Aaron Asadi says:
"Congratulations to the Prime Minister. He takes office with four in ten UK adults thinking about starting a business or side hustle this year. Few Prime Ministers have inherited that much ambition to work with, and he inherits a small business plan already in motion. His job is to see it through.
"He has promised good growth in every postcode, and the high street is where people will look first for proof. Taking cafés, shops and hairdressers out of business rates gives them breathing space. If the units next door start filling within a year, the country will know he meant it.
"If Good Growth Funds are to mean anything, a founder in Carlisle must get the same backing as a founder in Croydon. Two thirds of aspiring entrepreneurs do not know government-backed support exists, so help has to reach people, or the promise fails quietly.
"We work across government every day, from the Treasury to the business department, and we stand ready to work with the Prime Minister and his team to make the United Kingdom the best place in the world to start and grow a business."
Each of Burnham's pledges lands on ground where we've already set out what would make it work.
Rates relief stops businesses closing but doesn't restart trading. The prime minister has also promised 10-year plans to bring down the cost of essentials, including energy.
Our Powering Local Businesses campaign with partners EDF and Square is already showing what that looks like in practice, from free pop-up shop residencies that give founders their first step onto the high street to £5,000 grants for energy-efficient equipment.
Reform only delivers if small firms can actually bid.
We've called for a Small Business Procurement Code, and our Supply Connect programme already helps founders get contract-ready.
Every fund should carry a guaranteed start-up and small business strand, with common delivery standards. A founder in Carlisle should get the same as a founder in Croydon.
The gap is adoption. Our research with Strand Partners, built with Google, Sage and Dell, found only one in five small firms uses AI regularly.
We want a national digital adoption service – built on what thousands of businesses tell us through our Tech Hub programme – delivered inside the Business Growth Service.
Evidence from the CFIT (Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology) coalition to which we contributed shows that helping firms get finance-ready before they apply could unlock a further £5 billion of lending a year.
We want the financial readiness programme delivered at pace, and the late payment measures in the Small Business Protections Bill carried through Parliament undiluted.
On skills, Burnham's rethink of the school system is the opening for enterprise education and a proper youth entrepreneurship route, alongside the expanded placements and apprenticeships he's promised.
The plan small businesses were promised is already in motion, and nothing about a change of prime minister needs to slow it down.
Backing Your Business, the government's first dedicated small business plan in over a decade, set out nearly 200 commitments last summer.
One year on, the Department for Business and Trade reports that 98% are in train and nearly half are complete.
The Small Business Protections Bill is in Parliament and expected to become law early next year, capping payment terms at 60 days and giving the Small Business Commissioner the power to fine persistent late-payers.
Permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure premises arrived in April. The Business Growth Service is open as a single front door to support.
We look at the plan's first year in detail in this piece, including what the minister for small business told our members directly.
Our job through the change at the top is to make sure delivery holds.
We sit on the Small Business Regulatory Taskforce, hold a seat on the Small Business Growth Forum, helped shape the 10 digital adoption recommendations the government backed in full, and partner on its AI Skills Boost programme.
The new prime minister has made growth in every part of the country his promise. Small businesses are how that promise gets kept, and we'll keep making your case where it counts.
We give small businesses a voice – in the media and in Westminster. See our latest press releases, policy insights and how we're championing small firms. Visit the media and policy centre
