The Willow Review describes itself as “an independent Government-backed review aiming to underline the financial benefits of sustainability for small businesses across the UK.” It was initiated by Small Business Britain, chaired by them and Barclays, also supported by BT and involving Government departments, British Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses and others. Kicking off in earnest at the start of 2025, their report was published in June.
The good news
Efforts to address sustainability and small businesses that bring together important players in the field are welcome. A lot of the content in the report and the recommendations are equally uncontroversial. For example, simplifying messages about what small businesses can do, emphasising opportunities, working through trusted intermediaries and encouraging participation in networks.
The not so good news!
Unfortunately there are plenty of fundamental reasons to be critical of the review. The report itself acknowledges that “there are important differences between small and medium-sized businesses”. That is a huge understatement, especially when you extend that thinking to consider sole traders and the like. Yet the term ‘SMEs’ is used throughout. This is a meaningless label that homogenises a hugely diverse population. It leads to one-size-fits-all policy prescriptions that, in practice, fail to address the circumstances and outlooks of the very smallest businesses.
The Executive Summary gives a colourful and clear set of nine results from the survey for the Review. All are based on businesses “reporting to benefit financially from sustainability”. It’s only when you get to the Research Methodology at the end of the report that you discover that these businesses only account for about a third (152 out of 425, 36%) of the survey respondents. What about the rest? Were they missing because they weren’t taking action on sustainability, they weren’t measuring the financial impact or they weren’t identifying any such benefit? The survey was conducted online and was open to anyone (yes, I did contribute!). It was, therefore, not a random survey; hence, the results cannot be assumed to be representative of small businesses across the country.
There also appear to be contradictions within the report. “Access to finance remains one of the biggest barriers for small businesses seeking to transition towards more sustainable practices.” Yet only 24% of the businesses benefiting from sustainability reported this as a problem. Cutting costs and winning customers were a lot more significant. Similarly, the report states that intermediaries, such as accountants, “have a vital role to play” but then the recommendations focus on funding and sustainability champions within local government and “a government-led awareness campaign”.
Watch this space
Commendably, the Willow Review promises to check progress annually. Let’s hope the results in a year’s time exceed current expectations.