KBB BUSINESSES IN NEED OF MORE SUPPORT SAYS KBSA

KBB retailers are facing another year of unnecessary red tape and new legislation that will create an extra burden says KBSA CEO Graham Ball.

He said that the new coalition government had promised to promote growth in the SME sector and introduce measures that would support job creation and reduce the red tape that currently strangles the sector, but recent announcements suggest that more problems will be created for small businesses to deal with.

Graham said, “First of all we had the hike in VAT to 20%. Initial research amongst our retail members suggested that just less than half had not seen any increase in business prior to the rise coming into effect in January and the picture was also mixed as to how trading would go in January. In the meantime research commissioned by the FIB shows that the £45.5 billion a year housing RAMIE market will fall by 2% as a direct impact of the VAT increase and that removing this £910 million from the market will result in 7,500 jobs being lost in construction, rising to 11,400 by 2019.

“Now we have the proposals for shared parental leave which will be a disaster for many small businesses. The principal of shared parental leave may have merit in principle but the proposals as they stand are a recipe for chaos. How is an employer expected to plan and arrange cover with this fully-flexible system?

“This is too difficult for small businesses to deal with and could prevent them from taking on staff at a time when they are expected to create wealth and jobs.

“This kind of new legislation is typical of a Government that is out of touch with how to support business owners and is like a sledgehammer hitting small businesses which should be sources of growth and jobs.”

For further information: www.kbsa.org.uk

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