Latest Campaigns
Our campaigns for 2010 focus on establishing a period of stability for businesses
General election
In our business manifesto, we're calling for political parties to commit to political responsibility in order to achieve stability in the future, rather than just to get election-winning headlines.
We believe that if businesses are to maximise their recovery and growth, support structures must be an economic priority. We've developed our proposals based on what support members told us in our recent quarterly Referendum surveys.
Budget
Our members have fed their views into our Budget submission. 360 members have volunteered to take part in our Economy Watch Panel and the first report was published in February 2010. These small firms will report on a monthly basis on the effects of developments in the economy on their businesses. We have used this data, as well as information collated from other research projects, to put together our Budget submission.
Tax and finance
Access to finance remains an issue for many small businesses and a recent FPB survey found that companies are now turning to alternative sources of funding.
Many small businesses have improved their financial discipline and reduced costs, but businesses feel that they are still unlikely to receive funding from the banks because they are still seen as a risk. In December, we welcomed the Government's decision to extend the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme and we'll be monitoring progress and giving feedback directly to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Regulation
We continue to lobby for a regulatory framework that would help firms to focus on growing their businesses. We've called for the establishment of a 'comprehensive regulatory review', in order to regularly assess which regulations are working and which aren't.
We're preparing to submit a paper to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on how it can develop business knowledge and skills in all government departments, to ensure policy makers understand how regulation affects small firms.
Plus, we've submitted our proposals to the Scottish government to ensure that local authority procurement processes remain fair following the introduction of the Equality Bill.
Employment
We're lobbying for minimum administrative burdens when changes to additional paternity leave and pay come into force. We've also put forward members' concerns about the upcoming implementation of the Agency Workers' Directive, which will provide temporary workers with increased employment rights.
The Equality Bill is one of the biggest pieces of legislation with the potential to affect our members that is passing through parliament this year. We'll be campaigning to ensure the Bill places the minimum amount of burden on small firms as possible.
Business costs
The business rates revaluation was one of the big issues we campaigned on in 2009 and we welcomed the Government's decision to introduce transitional relief that would minimise the impact on firms whose bills have increased.
We'll continue to support businesses in the run-up to April when the first bills are dues.
Members on our environmental panel recently told us that they would like to see more incentives for businesses to go green rather than increased taxation and this is just one of the areas where we will be pushing for a reduction in business costs this year.
