Further calls for UK government to negotiate business-friendly Brexit

● Small firms ‘don’t have enough time to prepare for a cliff-edge’, says Federation

Small firms are calling for a “pro-business” Brexit including a smooth trade and a transition period, believing a “no deal” scenario would hit them disproportionately hard, a new survey unveiled today has found.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) reports that close to two-thirds of such firms that export goods to the EU Customs Union feel trade would be hit if overall costs increased as a result of having to complete additional customs declarations. And 11 per cent said that they would stop exporting to the EU altogether.

It comes alongside new research that reveals the consequences for small businesses if faced with any form of customs declarations after the UK leaves Europe.

FSB national policy chairman Martin Mctague is urg- ing the UK government to use the summer as an opportunity to turn the heat up on negotiations with the European Union to deliver a pro-business Brexit based on easy trade, access to talent and a transition period.

“Smaller businesses, and those businesses they rely upon, simply don’t have enough time to prepare for a cliff-edge Brexit,” he said. “It cannot be forgotten that smaller firms, unlike bigger businesses, do not have the capacity or resources to make adequate contingency plans to soften the impact of this scenario.”

He wondered, for example, how a small deli will survive if having to pay large tariff increases on food imported from the EU.

The FSB is calling on the government to design specific advice and support for small businesses across different sectors, and while it welcomed the proposed Facilitated Customs Arrangement model, it said many questions remain on how this will work.

Solutions must be developed “to mitigate any changes that will negatively hit smaller firms,” Mctague added.

Also calling for the UK Government to do more to assuage business concerns over Brexit is business adviser and accountancy firm Scottmoncrieff. The firm – with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness – said the fallout from Brexit negotiations is leaving SMES even more unsettled this year.

It found that nearly 80 per cent of SMES noted a concern about the UK economy, as opposed to only 28 per cent about the global economy. Last year 68 per cent said their chief concern was the UK economy.

Partner Gareth Magee, however, said UK SMES “still have extraordinary spirit and the will to succeed despite some of the bigger issues they face”.