Member Article

Accountancy Partnerhsip calls for urgent broadband investment

An innovative online accountancy firm is calling for urgent government investment in superfast broadband ahead of looming internet tax reforms and a New Year start-up boom.

Managing director of Wirral based The Accountancy Partnership Lee Murphy said a recent Ofcom report revealed nearly half a million SMEs in the UK are unable to access superfast broadband.

He said the issue is further exacerbated by a growing demand for SMEs to beef up their internet profile, including the government’s fast approaching ‘Making Tax Digital’ initiative, requiring all firms to file accounts online.

Meanwhile, January will highlight a growing dependency on the internet with new business website registrations expected to rise by 20pc in the first month of the year, following a spike in start-ups.

“As a firm delivering cloud-based accounting services we are well aware that far too many businesses are held back by poor broadband coverage and slow speeds,” said Mr Murphy. “They are simply not able to maximise the same opportunities online afforded to better connected competitors. It is not a level playing field and only serves to broaden the gap between the fast-emerging built-up areas and the nation’s more remote rural locations.

“On the international stage, we also risk being rapidly overtaken by nations such as Japan who are piling resources into universal broadband. Our mobile internet coverage, for instance on trains and roads, requires real attention to support business people on the move.”

The Accountancy Partnership provides cloud based accounting software called Pandle focused on sole traders and small businesses. Start-ups can use the software free of charge and then opt to pay a small fee for more advanced functionality. The firm has 25 employees and more than 3,000 clients.

“Technology is advancing at rapid pace with transformative cloud-based solutions, and the vast majority of businesses require superfast and reliable internet to function effectively and competitively,” said Mr Murphy. “However, hundreds of thousands of firms remain at a severe disadvantage, with an estimated 192,000 not even able to access speeds of 10 Mbps. Many business parks and rural areas remain hampered by poor internet affecting their ability to grow and innovate.

“Following Ofcom’s recent ‘Nations Connected’ report there is a groundswell of support for greater action to deliver universal broadband. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling on the Government to deliver a Universal Service Obligation (USO) so that a basic level of broadband can be accessed by all small businesses by 2020.

“However, there is no room for delay, as many more new and ambitious entrepreneurs will be setting up this month. There has been a spike in the number of websites registered in January for the past five years. British entrepreneurs are 10pc more likely to start a business in the first month of the year than in any other month.

“Furthermore, HMRC is embarking on the biggest change to the tax system in a generation with the ‘Making Tax Digital’ initiative. For businesses, the most significant change is the requirement for digital record keeping. This will involve the use of software to record income and expenditure, which can submit information to HMRC once every three months. The new regime will start soon with the smallest and some of the most vulnerable businesses first.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Pinnington .