Local councils don’t understand small businesses

The LBRO conducted a survey of 2,000 enterprises and discovered that about 50% of the respondents felt that their local authority does not have enough of an understanding about their sector to enable them to regulate it. A similar number believe that the level of regulation hampers their success. And about 16% of businesses still see their biggest challenge as complying with regulations.

Freelancers do think that most locally enforced regulation is straightforward, fair and proportionate but the cost of complying is significant. 25% of businesses say they have to employ at least one person to handle a specific regulatory area.

There is also a problem of consistency. 38% of the surveyed businesses said they are not confident in their local authority's ability to be consistent when it comes to enforcement.

Despite this there is growing evidence that contractors and local authorities are starting to work together. 82% of businesses now consider the local regulators are there not only to enforce the regulations but also to provide advice.

Clive Davenport from the FSB said that a vast proportion of the UK's wealth comes from SMEs and yet they are the most vulnerable in terms of inconsistent regulations. Business owners with small workforces face considerable time and resource pressures and they simply don't have the capacity to deal with onerous red tape. Complex administration burdens SMEs like an additional tax.

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