Federation of Small Businesses East Berkshire
East Berkshire Branch
Tel: 07778 970 668
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FSB Proposal for a Small Business Survival Pack
Small businesses face unprecedented problems during this economic downturn in accessing affordable finance, winning healthy contracts and from aggressive late payment policies from big businesses. Figures from the OECD state 40 per cent to 50 per cent of small businesses fold within the first three to four years. The FSB pins this to the lack of cash flow which has a devastating impact on the job market.

Government needs to show clear and decisive action to help and protect small businesses as it did with the banking industry. It needs to be innovative in the short term as many small businesses are suffering right now. This will help the UK economy shorten the economic downturn and save threatened jobs.

The government had to rewrite the rules to rescue the banks. The FSB believes that it is now time to tear up the rule book to save the millions of small businesses that drive our economy and employ just under 60 per cent of the private sector workforce.

The FSB does not want to see profligate lending. Small businesses are not exposed to bad debts in the way banks were. Small businesses are well financed, but cash flow and short term financing has become a major issue to the 4.5 million small and medium sized enterprises in the UK.

The FSB’s proposal identifies freeing-up access to finance, tackling the practice of late payments and vastly simplifying the process of applying for public sector contracts as crucial.

Three practical steps that can be taken in the next two weeks:

1. Create a new survival fund open to all small businesses and financed with £1 billion;
2. Fully enforce the Companies Act of 1985 and make Companies House an enforcement agency;
3. Introduce a single pre-qualification questionnaire for public procurement contracts
Proposal for a Small Business Survival Package
Small businesses face unprecedented problems during this economic downturn in accessing affordable finance, winning healthy contracts and from aggressive late payment policies from big businesses. Figures from the OECD state 40 per cent to 50 per cent of small businesses fold within the first three to four years. The FSB pins this to the lack of cash flow which has a devastating impact on the job market.     more
Freeing up access to finance
The Government has taken action to refinance the banks, but the effects of this are not being felt by the small business community. We now need immediate action to free up finance for small businesses. In the absence of finance from the banks, the Government needs to adopt short term and innovative solutions.     more
Ending the culture of late payments
Late payments have become an ever increasing problem for small businesses in the UK. A recent survey4 suggested that there are £18.6billion in outstanding payments to the SME sector. The research also showed that almost a fifth of SMEs (19per cent) now employ a dedicated person to chase late payments and that the average figure owed is £30,000.     more
Access to Public Procurement
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has pledged to switch spending priorities to “areas which make a difference”, referring specifically to small businesses.     more

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In this section:
Proposal for a Small Business Survival Package
Freeing up access to finance
Ending the culture of late payments
Access to Public Procurement