Business lobby delivers pre-budget report proposals

Held every year before the release of the autumn statement, the meeting allows the business lobby to pass on the concerns of employers over the past year.

Key recommendations from the FPB include:

• Reassessing any proposed increases to National Insurance Contributions – To boost business competitiveness, the FPB believes Chancellor Gordon Brown must relieve businesses with what is considered a direct increase in the cost of employment and a barrier to growth.
• A reduction in the stamp duty, which the lobby believes penalises businesses looking to expand by moving into new and more efficient premises.
• Subsidising the cost of red tape regulation -The FPB claims that the government should differentiate between large and small firms when introducing new regulations, with subsidies to help implement them.
• Clearer definitions on issues such as adequate capital contributions and working hours, so that businesses find it easier when it comes to self-assessment.

Nick Goulding, chief executive of the FPB, said: “"Our job is to ensure the voice of small business is heard as the Government is compiling its pre-Budget report,

"Our message to the Treasury was that its policies must ensure control and flexibility in fiscal policy that supports growth, enterprise and productivity. The Government needs to give control to businesses, enabling management decisions to be made quickly and easily.

“Furthermore, it must provide small businesses with a flexible trading structure, which can adapt relatively quickly and easily to changing business needs. These two basic principles will ensure a number of small businesses in the UK will go on to become large businesses of the future."