Partner Article

E-Petition for Micro-businesses gathers pace.

An e-petition calling for more provisions to be made for the UK’s micro-businesses, is gathering pace - just two weeks after its creation.

‘Tell us what you’re doing for micro-enterprises, not SMEs’ e-petition’ has been created by Tony Robinson OBE, and aims to get a fairer deal for small businesses, who feel as though they are missing out.

The petition draws attention to the term ‘SME’, and argues that many micro-businesses are being ignored by the government as they fail to fall under this category

Mr Robinson suggests that 95% of UK enterprises are micro-businesses, and yet he estimates that in the last 15 years, 90% of the billions of government spending has gone to the 5% of businesses with over 10 employees.

Calling for an equality of treatment, he said: “We have heard a lot of lip service over the years: about the ‘value of start-ups’ and we’re the ‘lifeblood of the economy,’ but we want to replace the platitudes with hard facts.

“When we reach the required 100,000 signatures on our e-petition, our call for government to report what they’re doing to help micro-enterprises rather than SMEs, will be debated in parliament.

“When this happens, the clearer communication we want can become policy.”

North East regional vice chairman of the FSB, Ted Salmon, stated that he fully supported the campaign, and that it served to underline the value of work and campaigns done by organizations like the FSB, where the majority of members employ less than five people.

He said: “4.5 million businesses is a hefty number, especially since that’s over 95% of enterprises in this country, and that’s before you consider how many families that impacts on.

“People in this sector don’t lack the motivation or resourcefulness to adapt, just the encouragement and tools for the job that comes from government understanding what running your own business is all about.

“With so many redundancies from the public sector and armed forces coming on top of private sector lay-offs and salary sacrifice, and the rising fuel and utility costs, there has never been a better time for the government to assess how it can effectively use the stretched resources it does have and help the micro employers really get our economy growing again.

“The first steps towards that would be a proper dialogue.”

The petition has also received support from business membership organizations and companies providing services such as accountancy or legal advice.

It is open to anyone who is a UK resident whether they are micro-enterprise or not, and can be viewed and signed here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .