FSB lifts the ‘Barriers’ to small business growth

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) launched its’ fourth biannual survey “Lifting The Barriers To Growth in UK Small Businesses 2006” at The Bentley Hotel, South Hykeham, Lincoln.

The Right Worshipful The Mayor of the City of Lincoln Councillor Steve Allnut and the City Sheriff Councillor David Beresford and the Sheriff’s Lady Mrs Carole Beresford headed a distinguished and expectant audience of senior figures from Local Government; the Police; Learning and Skills Council; business banking; business support and accountancy.

David Dexter, Lincolnshire Region Chairman, welcoming guests to the meeting said that; “This year’s “Lifting The Barriers” report is by far the largest survey of small business opinion ever conducted in the UK.”

“Nearly 19,000 FSB members completed this very in depth survey which is almost five times the size of the government’ own Omnibus Survey of small business opinion and ten times larger than the surveys conducted by banks and universities.”

Cath Lee, the FSB East Midlands Area Policy Officer, gave an overview of the results from the East Midlands before handing over to the FSB Lincolnshire Regional Organiser, Michael Self, who released some important elements of the results from Lincolnshire.

“We had over 1,500 responses from the East Midlands”, said Michael Self, “and 25% of those were from the county of Lincolnshire.”

“Whilst many of the answers from our Lincolnshire members closely paralleled the rest of the East Midlands responses, it is significant that there are fewer younger businesses in Lincolnshire!”

“This is worrying as it shows that entrepreneurs are not starting as many businesses in Lincolnshire.”

“Supporting this was the evidence that there were fewer limited companies and more sole traders and partnerships amongst the Lincolnshire small businesses who completed the survey.”

“There was a massive response from Lincolnshire businesses to tell us that legislation and government red tape was badly damaging their businesses”, said Michael Self.

“The Disability Discrimination Act was negatively affecting 67% of businesses as was Flexible Working; new Maternity/Paternity Leave arrangements was a problem for 63% of businesses and 65% were being hit by the Working Time Directive.”

David Dexter concluded by reminding the meeting that over 99% of Lincolnshire businesses are ‘small’ and that the future economic success of Lincolnshire depended on the success of these small businesses.