Our industry deserves a voice in the rooms where decisions are being made.

At the Home & Gift Association, one of our most important responsibilities is ensuring that the businesses we represent have a voice beyond our own industry.

That means taking the experiences of independent retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, designers and suppliers into those conversations.

Recently, HGA wrote to Number 10, supported by the BATF economic report, to demonstrate the scale and economic importance of our industries and highlight the mounting pressures businesses face.

We have now received a formal Government response, and there is plenty in it that gives us reason to keep pushing.

Our Industry’s Voice

Recognition for our industry

The Government has explicitly recognised the contribution made by independent retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and designers across the home and gift sector, alongside retail’s wider role in supporting employment, local economies and vibrant high streets.

It also acknowledged the “resilience, creativity and innovation” of businesses operating within our sector.

That recognition matters. Our industry brings together thousands of businesses of different shapes and sizes, from independent retailers and family businesses to manufacturers, importers, exporters, designers and larger suppliers. Collectively, they make a significant contribution to the UK economy and communities throughout the country.

Getting that message recognised at Government level is important. But being recognised is not the finish line.

Business Costs

The cost of doing business remains front and centre

One of the major issues raised by HGA was the cumulative cost of doing business. The Government’s response acknowledges concerns around business rates, employment costs and energy prices.

It points to permanently lower business rates multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, which the response states will be worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit more than 750,000 premises. It also references a £4.3 billion transitional support package following revaluation.

Those are significant headline figures. Our job at HGA is to ask the next question.

Fair Competition

A level playing field for overseas online marketplaces

Businesses operating responsibly in the UK invest significant time, money and expertise in making sure their products meet the standards expected of them.

The Government’s response acknowledges HGA’s concerns about overseas online marketplaces and reiterates commitments around:

• Fair competition between businesses.
• Maintaining high product standards.
• Creating a level playing field for compliant businesses.
• Protecting consumers from unsafe products.
• Ensuring effective enforcement of existing rules.

We welcome that acknowledgement and will continue pushing on this issue. UK businesses investing in compliance, product safety and responsible trading should be able to compete on a level playing field.

Fair competition requires effective and consistent enforcement.

Supporting Growth

Talking about growth means tackling the barriers

The Government’s response highlights support through the Business Growth Service, Growth Hubs and British Business Bank, intended to provide businesses with advice, guidance and access to finance.

At HGA, we want to understand whether that support works for the SMEs that make up such an important part of our industry.

It is easy to tell businesses to grow. The harder question is what is stopping them:

• Access to finance and pressure on cash flow.
• Late payments or terms extending from 30 to 60 or 90 days.
• Employment costs and recruitment challenges.
• Import and export barriers.
• Regulation and compliance costs.
• The cost of entering new markets or a lack of confidence to invest.

If we want SMEs to grow, we need to understand these practical barriers and work collectively to remove them.

The High Street

Our high streets matter

We were pleased to see the importance of high streets recognised within the response. For HGA, this is about considerably more than retail sales.

Independent retailers create jobs, support other businesses and provide routes to market for brands, designers and makers. They invest in their communities and help create the individual character that makes our towns and cities places people want to visit.

The home, gift and lifestyle industry should have a strong voice in the conversation about the future of Britain’s high streets. This will remain an important part of our advocacy work.

What Happens Next

This is not “job done”

Perhaps the most important element of the response is the commitment to continued engagement with businesses and trade associations to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

We intend to take them up on that.

We do not want to receive a Government response, file it away and tick a box marked “Government engagement: done”. This is a positive advocacy milestone, but it is not a policy win yet.

The economic importance of our industry has been put directly in front of Number 10. The contribution our businesses make has been acknowledged, and many of the challenges we raised are being recognised.

Now we need to turn that recognition into meaningful engagement and practical change. That is where our industry comes in.

Your Experience Matters

We need your evidence

Every conversation HGA has with a policymaker becomes stronger when we can demonstrate exactly what is happening within businesses.

We are asking companies across the home, gift and lifestyle sector to keep talking to us about:

• Late payments and extended payment terms.
• Difficulties accessing growth finance.
• Importing and exporting challenges.
• Pressures facing independent retailers and high streets.
• Employment, skills and recruitment costs.
• Competition from overseas online marketplaces.
• Regulation and compliance.
• Sustainability challenges.
• Anything preventing your business from investing or growing.

These examples help us show policymakers the problem, the evidence, the impact and what Government could do to make a difference.

From recognition to action

The Home & Gift Association will continue working to ensure our industry’s voice is heard by Government, policymakers and organisations influencing the future business environment.

We can open doors, create conversations and take our industry’s case into the rooms where decisions are made. Our members give us something powerful to say when we get there.

So keep talking to us. Keep giving us the evidence. Keep challenging us and telling us what needs to change.