Small businesses call for clamp down on poor payment practices

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has urged the next government to focus on a better trading relationship with the EU, reform business rates, and clamp down on poor payment practices towards smaller suppliers.

The FSB also wants to see an improvement in small businesses’ access to finance and a 33% statutory public procurement target for SMEs.

A poll by the FSB shows that while 96% of small business owners intend to vote, 20% have yet to decide who they will vote for and 33% have a good idea but could still change their mind. The FSB’s policy chair, Tina McKenzie, said small business owners and the self-employed are “looking for which of the parties has the most compelling pro-small business offer.”

The poll found that 90% of small business owners are concerned business taxes could rise under the next government, while 92% fear that a future government could increase the costs and risks associated with employing people. FSB members surveyed say they want a commitment to a series of tax measures to support the sector. These include fundamental reform of business rates; no increases in tax on dividends for directors of limited companies and National Insurance for the self-employed; and a restoration of the small profits threshold for corporation tax.

The FSB have said more than half of small businesses it surveyed recently had experienced late payments in the previous three months. It has said thousands of small businesses are being held back by a “systemic poor payment culture” and a lack of adequate legislative protection. If late payments were clamped down on, 50,000 business closures could be avoided each year, according to previous FSB research.