Member Article

NE businesses unsure on Queen's Speech proposals

Despite being overshadowed by the arrest of a Tory frontbencher in a leak enquiry, the Queen’s Speech this week still held some interesting details for the country’s businesses.

The legislative programme set out for the next year featured 12 new bills, and focused on tackling the effects of the economic downturn. The big news was the introduction of a Banking Bill to provide greater protection for depositors and improved safeguards for banks which get into trouble.

The Confederation of British Industry’s Assistant Regional Director, Liz Mayes, said: “The Prime Minister has rightly focused on measures affecting the economy in this year’s Queen’s Speech. It is important that government policies assist businesses facing the credit crunch without placing unnecessary administrative burdens on them, which cost time and money, and stop companies focussing on the important challenges they face.”

However, not everything in the speech was received quite so warmly. On the Children, Skills & Learning bill, Liz Mayes said: “New legislation means that an extra 4.5 million employees will have the right to request flexible working. We understand the reasons for this, but we think that the decision to implement this policy in April rather than later in the year is a mistake. It will place an extra administrative burden on companies at a difficult time, when they are already struggling to cope with the economic downturn.”

The North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) expressed its disappointment after it was announced the Government will forge ahead with plans to implement supplementary business rates.

Ross Smith, NECC head of policy, said: “The Government should be taking measures to help businesses with cashflow and finance, not imposing an additional raid on their bank accounts. We now need to see a commitment from all councils in the North East that they will not seek to impose extra rates until businesses support the move.”

Colin Stratton, FSB Regional Chairman for the North East of England, said: “The Queen’s Speech is a mixed bag for small businesses this year and doesn’t fully seem to have taken into account their needs. Reforms to the financial sector are very welcome, following a very difficult year for small businesses which have seen costs on overdrafts rise and loans being defaulted. “However measures to extend flexible working for parents will be an extra burden for small businesses at an already challenging time and we are deeply concerned that SME’s will struggle to pay extra business rate charges which already stand at a prohibitive level.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .