Encourage small businesses to export and give Britain a £10 billion boost, Reeves urged

Rachel Reeves has been urged to make it easier for small businesses to sell abroad, which could mean a boost of almost £10 billion for Britain.

Business lobby group Walpole – which represents hundreds of luxury companies including Burberry and Aston Martin – wants an incentive to encourage British companies to export.

Chief executive Helen Brocklebank wrote to the Chancellor this month, saying businesses need help to help with ‘the first few precious years of operating in a new market’.

If an additional 70,000 small and medium-sized businesses were to start exporting goods, it would provide a £9.3 billion boost to the economy, the group said, citing figures from the Social Market Foundation think tank.

Brocklebank said: ‘If the government is to achieve its target of being the fastest growing country in the G7, it must support these companies.’

She called for tax incentives that would help companies in Walpole’s “brands of tomorrow” program.

The scheme includes bridal shop Gigi & Olive, which supplied a veil for Sophie Habboo’s wedding to fellow Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing last year.