Confidence among small and medium-sized businesses stands at its highest level for three years, says the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The Federation’s Confidence Index, which measures responses from 2,000 owner managers on a quarterly basis, found that four in ten had experienced increased revenues during the previous three months, and that confidence was improving in almost all sectors across the UK.
Small businesses have received a huge boost after the Government announced that it will accept all the recommendations made in a report by its Enterprise Advisor Lord Young.
Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) struggling to access finance received a boost today as the Business Secretary Vince Cable launched the first phase of the new business bank.
Britain’s business minister called on the Bank of England on Saturday to consider new ways to unblock the flow of credit to small companies in order to help the country’s sluggish economy.
The Government has finally published the Beecroft report which was compiled and submitted to the Government last year on proposals for employment law reform, having decided that it is in the public interest to allow people to have access to its content. The report was submitted to the Government in October 2011 but has not been officially published until now. It proposes reform to a vast number of areas of employment law, including unfair dismissal, discrimination law, employment tribunal process and awards, pensions, the criminal record checking system, work permit checks, TUPE, collective redundancies and equal pay audits.
As part of its commitment to ease the burden of regulation on businesses, the Government has launched two consultation documents on proposals to remove certain provisions in the Equality Act 2010. There are three specific statutory provisions under the spotlight.
The first proposal is to remove the provision in the Equality Act 2010 which make employers liable for repeated discriminatory harassment of their employees by external third parties over whom they do not have direct control, such as their customers, clients or suppliers, where inadequate steps have been taken by the employer to prevent the harassment (section 40(2) to (4) of the Act). However, repealing this provision would not affect the other avenues of legal redress which an employee may potentially use if subjected to conduct that would count as third party harassment, for example, a constructive dismissal claim (where the employer has breached the implied term of mutual trust and confidence by failing to take steps to protect the employee from the offensive behaviour) or a personal injury claim (where personal injury has been suffered by the employee as a result of the harassment). In addition, if the reason for the employer’s inaction is itself related to a protected characteristic covered by discrimination law (sex, race, etc.) that can still constitute unlawful harassment even if this provision is repealed. That consultation closes on 7 August 2012.
The rural economy and medium sized businesses will be at the centre of the next stage of the Growth Review, the Government announced today, as it continues its focus on restoring the economy’s health.
Building on the radical programme of reforms set out in the first Plan for Growth, published at the Budget, the next stage of the review will focus on:
Infrastructure – considering how to eliminate barriers and encourage greater investment in UK infrastructure