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Conservatives supporting small businesses

In the Observer today, David Cameron discusses his strategy to support small businesses during the coming recession.

  • First, councils have an important responsibility. Lots of our small businesses provide goods and services to local authorities, with payment normally coming within 30 days. But Brentwood and Castlepoint councils have led the way in reducing this to just 20 days. These 10 days can make all the difference in paying bills and staff, and helping businesses survive, and I want more local authorities to take it up.
  • Second, banks have got to behave more responsibly too. They've got to understand that now taxpayers are keeping them afloat it's their duty to unblock the credit channels, treat small businesses fairly and stop the march to mass insolvencies.
  • Third, and most important, government can do most to help our small businesses. Bureaucracy in the Treasury means that many businesses are still waiting for tax rebates. And this government is still pressing ahead with plans to raise its small business corporation tax by 2p.
  • It's also about being proactive. A few months ago the Conservatives announced plans to reform insolvency law to give sound businesses the breathing space they need to restructure their finances and stop going to the wall. And today we are calling on the government to allow small and medium-sized enterprises to defer their VAT bills for up to six months. That means a typical small business with 50 employees, revenues of £5m and an annual net VAT bill of £350,000, doesn't have to find £90,000 to pay the taxman when the bank has just taken away its overdraft.
With unemployment rising quickly, it is only right that the Conservatives focus on saving jobs and businesses. It will be interesting to see how the Labour Government responds to this announcement and whether, in the spirit of bipartisanship, they adopt these Conservative policies or not.

Comments

Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
October 20, 2008 7:18 am
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
I was recently left the following comment

"If you have any courage DJE, why not post this on your blog.

I fear you don't have the guts to address the real issues, only your party's increasingly out-of-step line:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/3212394/If-anyone-can-find-George-Osborne-tell-him-his-country-needs-him.html"

This sounds like the same person who has been posting under various economists' names during the last few weeks and rather than offering any constructive comments himself/herself, has resorted to insults and so called 'ironic' humour.

As regular readers know, I am happy to accept anonymous comments and have a real debate on this blog but I always find it pathetic when an anonymous commentatator goes on about 'courage' and 'guts' when they cannot even blog under their real name as I do and just uses this blog to show how clever they are.

If this anonymous commentator wants an honest debate on this issue, then at least have the 'courage' and 'guts; do it openly.

Otherwise find somewhere else to troll - I don't run this blog to give you and this discredited Labour Government platform for your propaganda - if you want to do that, then set up your own blog.

Yes, I am grumpy this morning but I think everyone is tired of these Labour apologists dripping their poison across the blogosphere when their Governemnt are the ones who got us into this mess in the first place.
October 20, 2008 7:38 am
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