Three quarters of Scottish SMEs support deficit reduction plans, survey finds

3 June 2010

In a survey carried out by the Forum of Private Business, 74% of Scottish small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) said reducing the deficit should be the new Government's main priority.

By comparison, only 41% said that fairer taxes should be the priority and just 21% called for the skills of the unemployed to be improved.

However, Scotland's SMEs appear to be especially keen to see stronger regulation of the banks and utility companies. A sizeable 71% of business owners north of the border said the new Government should make this a priority, compared to 62% of firms across the wider UK.

Other popular priorities for the Government among Scottish firms included fewer regulatory changes, (59%) simplification of the tax system (56%) and the creation of a better environment for business investment (53%).

Forum of Private Business spokesman Phil McCabe said: "I think it's clear that, like their counterparts across the UK, small businesses in Scotland want to see this huge deficit brought under control.

"Scotland's SMEs appreciate the need to deal with the national debt and appear to be behind the new Government's attempts to do so.

"Additionally, one subject which Scottish business owners are particularly concerned about is regulation of the banks and utility companies. This is likely to be down to the fact that the main Scottish banks received huge taxpayer-funded bail-outs, but also because of the perceived lack of choice Scotland's small firms face when shopping around for financial services."

When asked which areas they wanted to see improved locally, reducing local taxation emerged as the most popular choice, finding favour with 44% of respondents.

This was followed by parking and transport issues, on 38%, ahead of improving local business support services on 35%. Meanwhile, almost a third (32%) of Scottish Forum members said they wanted to see improvements made to their local area's image.

The figures emerged in the Forum's quarterly Referendum ballot, which was sent out to members just before the general election.

Through Referendum, the Forum also asked its members which political party they felt best understood their business.

The Conservative Party emerged as the most popular, being selected by 41% of members. It was followed by the SNP on 9% and UKIP, on 6%. Labour found favour with only 3% of respondents.

However, less than 1% of business owners said they believed the Liberal Democrats understood their needs and a significant proportion (38%) of Scotland's small business owners said no political parties at all understood their firms.

Mr McCabe added: "Judging from the show of support for the Conservatives, it would appear that smaller business owners in Scotland will be reasonably happy with the new Government we now have in place in the UK.

"However, there appears to be a great deal of disillusionment towards the main political parties among Scottish SMEs and this is something that certainly needs to be addressed."

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