Federation of Small Businesses - Weekly Brief

Week 8 of 2008 - Friday 22 February 2008

In this week’s issue: supermarkets; mass lobby; agency workers; flexible working; family business tax; congestion charging; marketing; business confidence.

1. FSB fights back to save small shops
After the lamentable, but inevitable failure of the Competition Commission to ensure fair competition in the grocery market between supermarkets and small independent shops, the FSB this week fought back with its work on a Private Members Bill in the House of Lords. The second reading of Lord Cotter’s Retail Development Bill took place and was passed in the House of Lords on Friday. The Bill calls for a level playing field for small shops and supermarkets. The FSB was mentioned by a quartet of noble Lords in the debate and FSB case studies were used to hammer home their Lordships’ illustrious opinions. The Competition Commission’s largely meaningless efforts on the grocery sector were still being mulled over in the papers over the weekend, with The Independent, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph all covering the FSB’s views.

2. Keep Trade Local mass lobby takes shape
The future of local shops will be a key message for the FSB’s mass lobby of Parliament on Thursday March 13. FSB members are already organising meetings with their MPs to emphasize our campaign to Keep Trade Local. After the meetings with MPs members will gather in one of the Palace of Westminster’s grand old rooms to meet with FSB National Chairman John Wright. Small Business Ministers past and present have also been invited. Details of lobby subjects and instructions for members have already been sent to the regions. Watch this space for more info.

3. Flexibility of workforce in the spotlight
There was an almighty brouhaha over agency workers this week, with a Private Members Bill to give all agency workers the same employment arrangements as full time staff getting air time in the House of Commons. The FSB briefed MPs on Wednesday and got a mention from Lorely Burt, Small Business Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, during the debate in the House. Unsurprisingly, the FSB doesn’t think the Bill is a good idea and pointed out in media outlets including the Daily Telegraph, the Morning Star and the Daily Express, that both agency workers and employers benefit from the current arrangements. Agency workers get the flexibility to manage their work/life balance and employers get the flexibility to manage their work/more work balance.

4. Flexibility of workforce in the spotlight
This headline is not an error, I just like repeating myself. This little nugget is about flexible working arrangements for full-time employees. There have been calls to drastically increase the number of employees who have the right to request flexible working. Again, the FSB doesn’t think this is a good idea. The Government, in the form of Business Secretary John Hutton, appears to agree with us, which is very nice of them. The Financial Times aired the FSB’s views, as did the Daily Telegraph, in which the FSB’s Stephen Alambritis was quoted as follows: “The balance at the moment is about right. It is important that existing flexible working arrangements are not jeopardised by over-zealous regulation.

5. A chink of light on family business tax
The Mail on Sunday (MoS) this week claimed that Chancellor Alistair Darling is planning a u-turn on proposals to hammer family-run businesses with new tax rules on income-shifting. Our old friend Alistair appears to be getting pretty good at u-turns it seems, but there are no guarantees on this by any means. The MoS mentioned the FSB’s opposition to the Government’s plans, while the Financial Times ran with the FSB’s Budget wish-list in its coverage of the subject. That Budget wish-list can be viewed right here, by the way: www.fsb.org.uk/frontpage/assets/FSBBudgetSubmission.pdf.

6. Congestion charging
“It does not discriminate between essential and non-essential use”, said me in the Independent on Sunday. Me was talking about the anniversary of the congestion charge in London, which is apparently being copied all over the world.

7. Free marketing event – woohoo!
B2B marketing communications will be the subject of the launch of the first ever best practice resource for businesses. Attendees at the launch will hear how 14 separate B2B marketing disciplines have come together in one web portal, with free access to all companies. Our cup runneth over! Lashings more info can be found at: www.dma.org.uk/content/Evt-Article.asp?id=4251&eml=765.

8. Business confidence
Some accountants have done some analysis about small business confidence. If you’re confident you want to know, here’s where you can find out more: www.icaew.com/bcm.