£1 billion Small Business Survival Fund needed to save the economy, says FSB

22 10 2008 United Kingdom

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has launched a blueprint for saving threatened jobs and stabilising the UK economy with a proposed new £1billion fund for small businesses

The FSB has called on the Government to take urgent, emergency measures to save the millions of small businesses that drive the UK economy and help tide them over the worsening economic downturn.

The key measure the FSB wants to see is the creation of a new £1billion Small Business Survival Fund open to all small businesses. The Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme should be scrapped and replaced by the new Survival Fund, bolstered with money made available through the European Investment Bank.

The FSB also wants to see big businesses which fail to pay their bills on time to be named, shamed and face financial penalties.

Small businesses are owed around £30,000 on average by big firms. The FSB has demanded that the powers of Companies House be increased, to enable it to enforce legislation to name, shame and fine those businesses which renege on payment terms.

The subscriber fee to the Government's Supply2.gov.uk website should also be scrapped, says the FSB, to open up access to information about public procurement contracts to all small businesses.

FSB National Chairman John Wright said: “A lot has been made of the rescue package for big banks, but small businesses are at the heart of our economy, employing just under 60 per cent of the private sector workforce. A rescue package for small businesses is crucial to shortening the economic downturn and saving jobs.

“Small businesses need innovative and decisive action now as things are hard for them now. The proposed Small Business Survival Fund will, if the Government takes it up, mean that the millions of small firms in this country will survive the hard times and be able to put our economy back on track.”

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