George Osborne has promised more support for small businesses in his speech to the Conservative Party conference, saying that the treasury would look for ways to directly supply credit for enterprises.
“If this party is anything, it is the party of small business,” Osborne said. In opposition, the Tories had floated a £50 billion loan guarantee scheme, and in his speech, Osborne suggested that the “monetary activism” would take a similar form.
In an attempt to make small businesses more willing to take on staff, the government announced on the weekend that it would extend the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from one to two years, as part of a longer-term programme to reduce “red tape” for entrepreneurs.
The Bank of England is also understood to be mulling injecting £50 billion into the UK economy through a bond-buying programme, in an attempt to free up bank capital for lending.
John Walker, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said that the changes to employment law on 1 October, which saw the end of the default retirement age and new rules on agency workers, make it “difficult to regard the Conservative Party as the party of small businesses”
Walker also said that while the federation welcomed any steps to make more financing available for small businesses, they “need to see more detail.”
“While the Chancellor repeated his proposals about long-term investment plans, we regret that there is still no plan to boost demand, growth or jobs in the short-term. Fiscal responsibility also hinges on growth in the short-term, but government policies remain too timid and incoherent,” Walker said.