Celebrated on the first Saturday of December – this year falling on 7 December 2024 – ‘Small Business Saturday’ encourages people across the UK to shop locally and support high streets and local businesses.
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), commented:
“The NFB wholeheartedly supports this campaign because local businesses are key to a strong national economy, and in the construction sector, this means builders’ merchants. The value of these business was best demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic. When they closed for the first two weeks of lockdown, and despite being treated as key workers, the construction industry closed operations due to the lack of construction materials.
However, this example also highlights that while we should absolutely support retail-based local business, we must not overlook non-retail companies such as manufacturing and construction.
In construction, 8 in 10 apprentices are trained by SMEs, yet SMEs only build 9% of homes and face significant challenges with the procurement process which favours big business, that prefer a best price subcontracting model. Is it any wonder we have a skills crisis?
On Small Business Saturday, broaden the conversation to include all the small businesses which create and sustain a healthy British economy, and construction is key to this”