“I want to make sure that you, as small businesses, have your voices heard..." - George Osborne

As a small business that prides itself on quality of service we place great value in business networking. Our most recent subscription has been to the Federation of Small Businesses, the UK's largest campaigning pressure group promoting and protecting the interests of the self-employed and small business owners.

 

 

One of the biggest event’s in the FSB calendar took place earlier this week as key politicians, business leaders, policymakers and FSB members came together on Tuesday at the Policy Conference in Westminster, London.

 

This year’s event – titled ‘Small Business 2020: inspiring growth, innovation and ambition’ – set three focus areas:

-      Rebalancing the UK economy

-      High-growth global future for small businesses

and growing tomorrow’s entrepreneurs - innovation and competition.

George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer was among many keynote speakers and led discussions and completed Q&A on the day.

On the subject of rebalancing the economy there was discussion around significant investment in all regions of the UK, with transport links and digital infrastructure being hot topics.

When questioned by members in the audience the chancellor was keen to champion the current Transport for the North (TfN) collective, but emphasized the importance of improving links between northern cities and the surrounding area, stating “The real challenge is to get cities, countries and towns in the north to think like one community”. The key, of course, is to ensure the local leaders for these devolved combined authorities understand the needs of small businesses and how best to stimulate local growth for this to maximize benefits to SMEs.

Rural broadband was also a point of contention: when Osborne suggested that improvements to technology would stem the flow of a skilled younger workforce and entrepreneurs moving away from rural areas his comments triggered much laughter amongst the FSB members. He know as much as the SME business leaders do the importance of broadband coverage and the ongoing issues in rural areas, and despite offering hope in the implementation of a universal service agreement warned that improving coverage would be a long and expensive process.

One of the main topics of discussion on the day was around how SME businesses achieve more growth, and the consequence of reforms to the tax system.

The chancellor was forced to defend proposals that would see small business owners and the self-employed having to update digital tax accounts quarterly, arguing that reform would make it easier to file and pay tax returns online.

He also blamed out-of-date international tax rules for inconsistencies in liabilities paid by multinational corporations, including the recent controversial tax deal between HMRC and Google.

The Surrey and West Sussex regional chairman of the FSB challenged the chancellor claiming ‘I don’t mind being in a tough game, all I want is the same rules’.

Osborne reassured that an international agreement to change those laws is imminent, and that 30 countries have already signed up to exchange information on tax affairs of companies.

 

He also stated that his focus would to be on corporation tax, meaning that profits would be taxed rather than turnover, claiming his new “diverted profits tax” is designed to allow the government to tax multinationals if they are show to have “real economic activity” in the UK.

 

His overall call to action on the day, though, was to urge small business owners to vote on the forthcoming referendum on Britain’s EU membership, warning that they could be “on the sharp end” of any decisions made:

“I want to make sure that you, as small businesses, have your voices heard because you are going to be on the sharp end of the economic consequences of the decision that the country takes and the potential uncertainty that may follow”.

 

Highlights of 2016 Policy Conference - footage c/o FSB:

 

As a proud FSB member we are part of the online research community designed to help shape the future of small businesses in the UK. We join the debate for ourselves and on behalf of our clients, and express our views on issues that matter to us, talk to other business owners and feedback to the FSB.

By doing this we hope to help business leaders across the UK secure a better future for small businesses. If you’re interested in finding out more about FSB or other networking opportunities contact me on 01785 248 939.

I hope to hear from you soon,

Catherine McDonald
Payroll, Administration and Marketing Assistant