What Does the Pre-Budget Report mean for SME’s and Company Formation?

Watching Newsnight last night, it seemed that the entire business world – and indeed the whole country- was waiting with baited breath, to hear the Chancellor’s ubiquitous pre-budget report.
This morning, opinion has been polarized; the shadow chancellor George Osborne suggested that Darling’s plan was ‘not credible’. While the small business and company formation community welcomed news that the planned corporation tax increase would be delayed and ‘time to pay’ policy would be extended , however, they were disappointed to learn VAT would return to 17.5% in the new year and that National Insurance would increase by 0.5% in 2011.

We speak to a couple of business owners, who have recently formed a company, and ask them if they feel Alistair Darling and the Government are really fighting the corner of the SME?
Peter Grattan, founder of online catalogue company ‘Grattans’ comments: “I was disappointed in the government’s pre-budget report. I feel that yet again, the government has wasted an opportunity to really get behind small businesses.”

Sarah Matthews, owner of hairdressing chain ‘Snippets’, says: “I know that with the state of the current economy ‘tough decisions’ – as Alistair Darling has said – needed to be made but at what cots to the SME sector?”