Mixed messages for UK small biz
Recession, isn't it?
Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery
The British economy is showing some signs of recovery, but January's fall in retail sales is a sign that any recovery is weak and still needs help from government and low interest rates.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics showed sales fell in January by 1.8 per cent compared to December.
David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said: "A decline in January’s retail sales was predicted because of weather-related disruption, but the fall was worse than expected, and December’s figure was also revised down. British retailers are obviously facing difficulties, and there is no significant sign that the economic recovery is gathering momentum."
He said the risk of a double-dip recession remained serious, and the government should maintain its easing programme and keep interest rates low.
Meanwhile, figures from Experian showed a drop in the number of business insolvencies - down to its lowest level since June 2007. Seven in every 10,000 businesses went bust in January 2010, compared to nine in every 10,000 firms going titsup in January 2009. The firm said it was too early to call an end to the recession, but the figures did suggest some improvement. ®
COMMENTS
Small business recovery
This small business is right now in the process of being packed into freight containers and emigrating along with all the staff. The UK claims to be business friendly, they are the most bloody useless place I have ever had the misforture to be.
It's the government doing the winding-up...
One of my clients is being wound up by HMRC. Clearly the rest of us creditors were prepared to wait. But not the government. And whatever cash they get *now* will probably get spent on unemployment benefit for all the people they are causing to get laid off. Well done indeed.
Some figures:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2010-01-13a.507.6
end of year tax
The tax man is hunting down funds and is targetingsmall businesses with spurious charges.
Many small companies are having to go (repeatedly) through the ohmbudsman to recoup as much as 25K which is then immediately recharged and the process starts again.
The tax man is far worse than the banks in trying to destroy UK small businesses and this being so close to end of year I can understand why some businesses would rather declare bankruptcy than have the tax men pull thier business down from under them.
Jacqui
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