This year’s Small Business Saturday is coming up on Saturday 5 December 2026.
Small Business Saturday has been running in the UK for over 10 years now and has become a major event. In some years over £1 billion has been spent in small, local shops on this day alone.
More information can be found on the Small Business Saturday website here.
This is an opportunity to promote local independent businesses and encourage residents to shop local during the busiest shopping period of the year in the run up to Christmas.
Small businesses have faced an unprecedented set of challenges over the past few years with Brexit, Covid, the economic crisis and the recent National Insurance hike for employers.
The Liberal Democrats have recently developed a policy paper called Revitalising High Streets – in which we call for a raft of policies to support small, independent businesses including a 5% VAT cut for hospitality businesses, reversing the employer national insurance increase and reforming the business rate system so commercial landlords pay more and businesses pay less.
You can read more and download the full document here.
ALDC has written a Council Motion based on these Liberal Democrat policies, and various actions local councils can take to support high streets and town centres, that you can find below.
We have updated our campaign resources to help you support Small Business Saturday this year.
There are some quick and easy communications you can do in the lead up to the event. Such as Social Media posts and Emails to residents (see templates below). Then it is great to follow up with Focus articles, or even a business survey to keep the support going with local businesses in your ward.
Christopher Holley says
I would like this pack to be able to engage with local businesses and try and get them signed up to us