Every householder knows that to get out of debt you need to spend less, earn more or do a bit of both. To grow your business you need capital and investment. The Project Merlin agreement with the big retail banks was supposed to wave a magic wand over bank borrowing and ensure lots of lending …
Labour & small business
Happy National Freelancers Day (for yesterday)
Thursday 23 November was National Freelancers Day. This may sound a little chintzy but let me assure people that they didn’t need to buy their freelancers a card. The day wasn’t sponsored by Hallmark, it is actually the brain child of the Professional Contractors Group, whose aim isn’t to sell cards but to highlight the …
Really backing small business
The party conferences showed that small business is on the agenda again for both parties and is big news. Make no mistake, it will be on the agenda all the way through this parliament. The Tories will try to paint themselves as the friend of enterprise and Labour as in hock to unions and the …
Back to the future
The revelation from the Public Accounts Committee that another government IT project has failed doesn’t feel like news as it all seems all too familiar. This time it was the turn of the FireControl project which wasted £469m. It should have replaced 46 local control rooms with nine state-of-the-art ones. Instead it has left a …
A small business view on the 50p tax rate
People have been asking me for my progressive small business view on the 50p tax rate. Those affected by it don’t like it, those hoping to earn that much (£150,000 pa) don’t either which is not a surprise. Their argument against it is that it doesn’t raise that much and it doesn’t affect that many …
Pensions are about wider public sector
Like most progressive people I am sympathetic to the public service workers who were striking over their pensions. Indeed as someone working in the private sector if I had such pension security and certainty I would certainly strike to protect it.
Cold comfort for small business
As the dust settles on the recent budget, questions are being asked as to why measures to support small business have not happened. For years, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had been sympathetic to calls for the end of IR35 and private assurances given to those 'in the know' meant its days were numbered.
No budget for small business
It was supposed to be a budget that would deliver growth and lead to prosperity building on the foundations of the earlier ‘tough, necessary' decisions taken by George Osborne in his first budget. The cuts, we were told, were difficult and necessary but would yield results.
Small business under pressure
David Cameron seems to see conspiracy against small business everywhere he looks. So the solutions he is seeking misunderstand what could actually assist small enterprises to grow.
Back to the 1980s?
You may have heard in the news that the government is bringing back 'enterprise zones' to help businesses flourish. A Thatcherite idea where certain areas would be given tax breaks to encourage growth.
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