Budget 2011: a small business response

Budget 2011: a small business response

We have a full reaction to the Budget announcements in our news section. But here are a few brief responses:

Meera Shah, founder, Red Apple Delivery: “Overall for small business it’s fairly positive. The only negative is in terms of employing people - it hasn’t really given me any impetus to hire people. It hasn’t encouraged it. I think he’s done the best he can in very tough situation.”

Neil Westwood, founder, Magic Whiteboard: “I’m glad he’s addressed the fuel. I would have liked more but at least he’s done something about it. On my deliveries it’s costing me a lot more than this time last year. If anything it needs to be reduced by 20p!

“On the tax simplification they’ve got rid of 100 pages, but when you have 10,000 pages, it’s not many. They need to do more but it’s a good start.”

George Derbyshire, chief executive, NFEA: "The impression I got was that there was a range of announcements that were relatively limited individually but together made up a worthwile package. The measures on regulation, tax simplification, public procurement are all worthwhile.

“I think there’s been a reasonable stab at a growth strategy across a wide range of industry sectors and measures. Apprenticeships are a difficult sell but once the penny drops I think lots of small businesses can use apprentices very effectively.”

Chris Gorman, spokesman, Forum of Private Business: “It’s a step in the right direction but we need more radical, hard-hitting, widespread reform to really make a difference to the lives of small business owners…  We wanted to some more drastic things in terms of radical tax and regulatory simplification.”

Brendan Flattery, chief executive, Sage UK: “Whether or not George Osborne’s Budget will amount to his promised ’Bonfire on Red Tape’ remains to be seen, but the three year moratorium on regulation for small businesses can only be good news for small business owners.

“The reduction in corporation tax is encouraging, and shows the Government is at least trying to match words with action. But despite this and other positive steps to encourage investment small businesses are likely to remain cautious in their optimism. A recent Omnibus survey we conducted found small business owners were left underwhelmed by the government’s efforts to get banks lending to business.”

• Enterprise Budget will deliver for "real businesses", says Chancellor
• Budget a "reasonable stab at growth" for small firms, say business groups
• Relive the Budget blow-by-blow with our live Budget blog
• Forum: Did you get what you wanted?

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