We approach the New Year with a credit squeeze, a deeply disappointing Pre-Budget Statement and access to funds rarely more difficult. Both government and banks continue to pay lip service to small businesses as the nation’s lifeblood but fail to realise that building and growing a business not only requires real ability and hard work but also access to funds. One of the most hurtful measures of the Chancellor’s statement was the abolition of taper relief which will have a major impact on owners of small businesses planning to sell for pension provision.
The cost burden overall has been discouraging, as The Times recently put it ‘what of the clever young person who opens a bakery in a deprived area or the couple who have worked for l6 hours a day over four decades and just seen their tax burden almost doubled? They have taken risks that an MP or parliamentary adviser or closeted bureaucrat will never have to tackle.’