FSB Calls for Greater Support

The Federation of Small Businesses has issued a strong statement to highlight its belief that, without further government help, more than a quarter of a million businesses could be lost.
The FSB has particular concerns about the large numbers of self-employed workers following its survey of 1400 small firms, 5% of which said they expected to close this year.
If those figures are extrapolated across the country, around 250,000 of almost 6 million small businesses operating in the UK could disappear. If we take Derbyshire as a specific local example, the figures would suggest around 2000 business failures in 2021.

FSB national chairman Mike Cherry said: “The development of business support measures has not kept pace with intensifying restrictions.
“As a result, we risk losing hundreds of thousands of great, ultimately viable small businesses this year, at huge cost to local communities and individual livelihoods.”
Mr Cherry said the government had met the latest national lockdown, “with a whimper,” and called for help that went beyond the retail, leisure and hospitality businesses.
“Company directors, the newly self-employed, those in supply chains and those without commercial premises are still being left out in the cold,” he added.

Directors of Small Companies
Among other groups, the FSB is concerned that directors of small companies, who pay themselves in dividends rather than drawing a salary, are not receiving any help from the government. Their figures suggest that somewhere between 700,000 and 1.1 million people fall into this category.
The Federation has submitted proposals to the Treasury for a Director’s Income Support Scheme limited to those who earn less than £50,000 a year, though no decision has yet been put forward by Government.