KBzine: the original kitchen and bathroom industry e-news - since 2002
28th January 2021
We strongly recommend viewing KBzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
KBSA calls for SME support in Autumn Statement
The Kitchen, Bathroom & Bedroom Specialists Association has called for more support for SME’s ahead of The Chancellor’s Autumn statement next Wednesday.
Graham Ball, Chief Executive Officer, said: “It really is time now for The Coalition to deliver on promises made in the past and get the banks lending more easily to SME’s. Whilst it has improved, there are still cases where the obduracy of the past has returned. Decision-making must be returned to a local level. Business Rates, of course, need modernising quickly as they cannot be sustained at the levels created when property prices were at their highest – that situation is just plainly daft!
“Like many sectors, SME’s are still being hamstrung by the amount of red tape. A classic example of this is in the new ‘autoenrol’ pension project where the administration process will be beyond some SME’s, leading to them having to spend more money employing accountants or pension providers to do it for them – what nonsense!’
“Despite promises of red tape being cut, someone must have found some more in the cupboard!
“Whilst it is not directly The Chancellor’s role, we would support the Adonis Review in calling for a US style Small Business Administration here in the UK which would be run by people who genuinely understood the needs of the SME sector; I believe that some of the longstanding issues SME’s have been lobbying for go unheeded, because MP’s focus on big business without realising the importance of the SME sector to the UK economy - and increasingly they have no actual experience of business before standing for Parliament!”
28th November 2014