A few weeks ago, I met with Karen Woolley from the Federation of Small Businesses. The FSB represent thousands of small businesses in the area. Small businesses employ millions.

We discussed employment security of self employed, tax rates and access to finance (bank lending etc). Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Ask any big business and they are likely to depend on a chain of small innovative companies for goods and services. I love to meet businesses locally, learn their stories, ask what their challenges are and find out how they are doing. We are lucky in the Black Country to have so many small companies doing great work. We should sing their praises more and do more to help them grow and employ more people. I was glad to meet the Federation of Small Businesses to discuss these issues.