The week Westminster missed: GDP up, late payments Bill in, small firms still operating

Westminster spent most of last week consumed by leadership speculation.

The economic news was sharper than the political news, and the policy news was bigger than either. Both got drowned out.

Small businesses do not gain from political churn; they gain from stable conditions, clear rules and progress on the issues that hit their cash flow. Last week delivered on the second and third while the first wobbled.

The numbers tell a better story than the headlines

On Thursday, the Office for National Statistics confirmed UK real GDP grew by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2026, up from 0.2% in the previous quarter. All three sectors contributed, with services leading the way.

GDP per head also rose by 0.6%, the fastest quarterly pace per capita in four years. Of the G7 countries reporting so far, the UK posted the fastest growth in the quarter.

These are not blockbuster numbers. But against global trade pressure and a domestic leadership row, they show an economy with more underlying resilience than the political mood suggests. Our members tell us they are "getting on with it", and for once, the macro data agrees.

The King's Speech laid out a small business agenda

We wrote last week about what the King's Speech means for small businesses. Five Bills in this session directly affect our members.

The headline one is late payments. Alongside it sit reform of SME lending and the ring-fencing regime, regulatory sandbox powers to test new products in real conditions, framework legislation for the UK-EU partnership on food, drink, emissions and electricity, and a national digital ID accessed through the GOV.UK app.

Polly Dhaliwal, COO of Enterprise Nation, said:

"Each Bill addresses a problem we hear from our 170,000 members week in, week out. Each will need to survive the legislative process intact. Last week's political churn did nothing to advance any of it."

What our members told us

We surveyed members on the King's Speech and their wider confidence in the UK business environment. The findings echo what the GDP figures suggest.

Faster UK-EU trade agreements were ranked as the measure most likely to positively impact members' businesses, followed by stronger late payment protections and investment in renewable energy and infrastructure.

The headline Bills in the Speech are landing with the people they are designed to help.

The bigger story was confidence. 60% of members said the King's Speech itself had made them slightly more confident in the UK business environment. Asked about recent political and leadership uncertainty, 60% said it had made no change to their confidence at all.

That second number is the more striking. Small businesses are not pricing in the Westminster noise; they are reading the substance and looking past the rest.

The biggest single barrier to growth identified by members was weak consumer confidence, tied with access to finance. Real, structural issues, not leadership briefings.

Asked where the government should focus over the next year, high street and local economic support came out top, followed by lowering business costs and AI, technology and digital adoption.

The late payments Bill: Our biggest campaigning ask reaches Parliament

The most significant moment of the week came yesterday. The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill entered the House of Lords, with the Prime Minister and Business Secretary hosting small business owners at Downing Street to mark the moment.

This is the toughest action on late payments in over 25 years. It caps payment terms at 60 days for large firms paying smaller suppliers, sets mandatory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, bans cash retentions in construction, and gives the Small Business Commissioner new powers to investigate poor payers, settle disputes outside court, and fine the worst offenders.

Government research puts the cost of late payments at £11 billion a year. Thirty-eight small firms close every day as a result. The average affected business is owed £17,000 at any given time and spends 86 hours a year chasing money it has already earned.

In an interview today, Business Secretary Peter Kyle signalled he will hold firm on the 60-day cap despite lobbying from corporate Britain. "Sixty days is a solid, reasonable outer limit for paying a small business," he said. That clarity matters. The temptation to dilute reforms grows as legislation moves through Parliament.

Polly explained:

"Enterprise Nation has campaigned on this for years. We submitted to the consultation and pressed for payment performance to sit with audit committees, a central ask in our submission. Late payment only changes when it becomes a governance issue, not just a finance one."

"The Bill is a strong starting point. The detail will decide whether it works in practice. We are pushing for anti-regression protections, so firms already paying in 30 days are not nudged towards the new 60-day ceiling.

"We want a clear pathway to a 45-day cap as behaviour improves. And we want a 30-day dispute verification window to stop large buyers gaming the system."

The Bill now begins its passage through Parliament, and we will be in the conversation at every stage.

Delivery is what counts now

The substance of last week was good. The economy grew faster than its peers. The King's Speech put a small business agenda on the legislative track. The late payments Bill, our biggest single ask, is in the system.

The risk is that another week of leadership speculation crowds out delivery. Bills need parliamentary time. Reforms need ministerial focus. Small businesses do not need the government talking about itself. They need the government finishing what last week's announcements started.

Last week showed the country can move forward in spite of its politics. The next test is whether Westminster can stop getting in the way long enough to finish the job.

People also read

• What the King's Speech means for small businesses

• Late payments crackdown: The biggest reforms in a generation

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