Since the recession began company formation owners have faced two main challenges: declining consumer spend and a restricted access to finance. Throughout the general election all three political parties devised policies to address both of these issues. David Cameron pledged that he would make doing business in the UK easier. But what has the coalition government actually done to help the SME sector since it has been elected into power?
Well, the Emergency Budget made some concessions to support small businesses, including a reduction in Corporation Tax, but many small business owners felt that it didn’t go far enough and the fact that it didn’t even address that access to finance for most SMEs is severely restricted was cause for much criticism. However, it seems that Vince Cable and George Osborne plan to change that. Yesterday, they released their discussions on the finance issue in a paper which claims to identify and define all other available routes to finance.