Small business campaigners are calling for the introduction of a new ‘Help to Grow’ style programme to help the nation’s 4m sole traders recover, as signs point to a two-tier recovery.
Small Business Britain, the leading champion of UK small businesses, believes targeted interventions to support sole traders is urgently needed, as new evidence suggests many have fallen behind other-sized businesses during the pandemic, particularly in terms of digital business skills.
Lloyds Bank’s seventh ‘Business Digital Index’ shows that a fifth of sole traders (22%) still have low digital capability which is having an impact on their productivity and profitability, showing that there is still more to be done.
