Date Published 08 September 2014
Entrepreneurs in the UK will have greater freedom to start and grow a business from their home under new measures announced by the Government in August 2014.
Around 70 per cent of new businesses start off in the home, and they contribute £300 billion to the economy. As part of its long-term economic plan to back businesses, the Government wants to make it much easier for people thinking of starting a home business to do so with the law firmly on their side.
The new measures include:
New legislation will make it easier for people to run a business from a rented home.
The law will be changed so that landlords can be assured that agreeing to home working by tenants will not undermine their residential tenancy agreement. A new model tenancy agreement will also be made available soon.
Updated planning guidance makes it clear that planning permission should not normally be needed to run a business from your home.
New business rates guidance clarifies that in the majority of circumstances home based businesses will not attract business rates.
The Business Minister Matthew Hancock announced the package at the first ever Home Business Summit, organised by the small business network Enterprise Nation, at Somerset House in London in August.
