The Business and Enterprise Minister, Mark Prisk (second from right), gets down to business with the members of the DIY Kyoto team. Photo: BIS
Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog
SMEs account for more than 99% of private businesses – no wonder we’re often referred to as ‘the backbone of the economy’.
So it was good to see Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk getting his hands dirty during the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) ‘Week in Small Business’ initiative.
Mr Prisk is spending his week with small businesses – and started with London-based DIY Kyoto, which makes wireless electricity meters to help consumers save energy.
The aim, according to BIS, is to help boost their understanding of the real-life issues faced by smaller firms, and bring SMEs and government closer together. Amen to that. I hope it succeeds.
Mr Prisk is no stranger to small businesses though. He was a chartered surveyor pre-politics.
“As I used to run my own business I have a strong idea of what really matters to business owners. This experience will give me even stronger insight into what small businesses need from government, particularly as they prepare for the economic recovery,” he explained at DIY Kyoto, a company founded by three Royal College of Art (RCA) graduates – Greta Corke, Richard Woods and Jon Sawdon Smith – in 2005.
Most small businesses will cite issues over cash flow, access to lending, and late payments – I suspect Mr Prisk will hear lots of that from the small businesses he visits. And, for those businesses that run company cars, worries over the rising cost of fuel.
As this East of England transport firm told the Forum of Private Business in a poll following the Budget.
“VAT was always going to have to rise and although will have an impact on fuel costs (a large part of our business) I still feel this is preferable to another hike in National Insurance. The reverse of the increase in National Insurance and taking low earners out of tax may make it easier to employ another two part-time people later in the year.”
A positive, if guarded response.
Tom Parry, the Forum’s research manager had this to say: “Many entrepreneurs feel this Budget has given their businesses a timely boost – particularly in reducing red tape and tax cuts and the proposals for an overhaul of business taxation.
“But concerns remain over bank lending, the impact on job creation of the National Insurance rise, public-sector cuts and areas of government support. The result of the coalition government’s first test appears to be that it has passed but is not yet achieving top marks.”
No doubt Mr Prisk will learn more as he tours the nation’s small businesses. But he’ll be helped by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s announcement today that the government is launching a
