Just under half of small-to-medium employers believe that the coalition government’s policies to date have had a negative impact on their business, while just less than a third feel that today’s Budget will make things worse.
A survey undertaken by pollster YouGov among 523 senior SME decision-makers revealed that 48% were unhappy with the impact of policies introduced since the last election, while only 26% believed that they had been good for business. The rest felt things had stayed moreorless the same.
Around 29% felt that today’s Budget would only make things worse, however, while a mere 7% thought it would have a positive effect. The remainder felt it would make little difference.
As to what respondents felt the government should be focusing its efforts on, nearly a third wanted to see put more pressure put on the banks to make funding more easily available.
Another 28% were keen to see the creation of a more competitive tax regime, some 15% called for VAT to be reduced and 13% thought lower personal income tax would be a good idea. A further 5% and 2% believed that the government should provide clearer guidelines on employment and health and safety regulations respectively.
In terms of the ‘Big Society’ idea, exactly half thought it would make no difference whatsoever to their business, 31% thought it would be a positive thing and 15% believed it would be negative.
