Business groups link up to focus on key demands
BUSINESS support groups are set to unite to demand policies for productivity and growth this week after it was revealed that confidence had fallen into negative territory for the first time in four years.
Company owners feeling confident are now outnumbered by those that feel the opposite, a study by the Federation of Small Businesses found. And though many conditions are improving, with small firms reporting greater access to finance, a rise in employment and reduced spare capacity, FSB chairman Mike Cherry said: ‘The Autumn Statement comes at a critical time for UK businesses of every size.’
With Labour’s annual conference taking place now, the Conservatives’ due early in October and the Autumn Statement just weeks away on November 23, FSB members met Chancellor Philip Hammond in Downing Street last week and pressed him to focus on policies including business rates reform, giving the green light to infrastructure projects and a simplified modern tax system.
Cherry said: ‘FSB members report a continued dip in confidence, and there are a series of domestic policy decisions we now need from Ministers to boost the economy. Top of the list is delivering infrastructure projects, both large and small, to connect small businesses and to open up public procurement to them. In addition, we want to see expansion of the annual investment allowance to drive innovation, a streamlining of the tax system to boost economic growth and new help for the self-employed.’
Emma Jones – founder of small business network Enterprise Nation and co-founder of the private sector funded StartUp Britain campaign – told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I feel very clearly that the Government is very different to the previous one and is listening more. The first thing the Prime Minister did was hold a round table where she heard what small business bodies had to say.’
Jones, who in July was made small business Crown representative by the Government to help smaller firms bid for and win important state contracts, said: ‘If ever there was a time for the small business groups to get together and present a united voice, it is now.
‘We have talked to 15 groups, including the British Chambers of Commerce, the FSB, IPSE, the Centre for Entrepreneurs and the Scale Up Institute. We have said: “Let’s find common areas of interest, let’s all come together”.
‘With party conferences, all organisations are going to want politicians to do too many things. It becomes easy to ignore. We hope that if we all get together it will be difficult to ignore us. We are calling Thursday’s event “United for Small Business”.’
She said topics of discussion were likely to include certainty over when Article 50 will be triggered, the treatment of dividends, the Living Wage, European funding for businesses and industry strategy.
The BCC warned on Tuesday that businesses were still in the dark on apprenticeship funding reforms, including the apprenticeship levy. With just over six months until it is introduced, a survey of 1,600 business leaders in August showed that nearly two in five still had no understanding of it or had not heard of it.
Meanwhile, a YouGov poll of small business owners for Heathrow Airport has found 60 per cent see a third runway at Heathrow as the best way to show the UK wants to trade internationally, compared with 19 per cent for Gatwick, 16 per cent for the HS2 rail link and 22 per cent for the Hinkley Point nuclear plant. Seventy-nine per cent believe infrastructure investment is key to making Brexit a success.
Enterprise Nation has announced a trade mission to China supported by Gatwick Airport and Chinese internet giant Alibaba among others. Jones has invited Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade, to join them. Fox recently faced criticism over recorded comments about ‘fat and lazy’ British business people.