Companies in Birmingham are not happy with the level of business support they are receiving from government, according to new search.
The research, conducted by YouGov, found that 66 per cent of Birmingham SMEs polled do not feel there has been enough local support.
It also highlighted that many local SMEs are still experiencing financial difficulties with 78 per cent seeing the UK as not out of the recession yet, despite official figures otherwise.
Before today’s emergency Budget, Birmingham firms polled are firmly in opposition to the planned hike in National Insurance.
When asked what one thing they would like to see from the new coalition government, 40 per cent of SMEs wanted to see the rise in National Insurance scrapped. A further 19 per cent were desperate for tax payments to continue to be delayed through extending the government’s business payment support service.
The research polled 67 small businesses in Birmingham that are using invoice finance for their corporate funding and was commissioned by the Asset Based Finance Association.
Kate Sharp, chief executive of the Asset Based Finance Association, said: “For firms in Birmingham it’s clear that access to finance is still really important.
“While our members are actively lending to Birmingham SMEs, it will be critical that the emergency budget looks to help them more, by extending government initiatives such as the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme.
“And with 66 per cent of firms feeling that they haven’t received enough local support, scrapping regional development agencies might not prove popular with many small firms too. It would seem that there is still some way to go before restoring business confidence in Birmingham.”
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