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UK is 'less business friendly’ than last year

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Thursday November 17, 2011 at 9:00am

A recent report in the Telegraph quotes a survey from our trade body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), which suggests despite a number of Government measures to reduce the regulatory burden on business, companies feel the UK is now less “business friendly” than a year ago.

In this year’s survey 44 percent of all companies said the UK is “business friendly”, down from 50 percent last year.

It looks like the Governments plans for one-in, one-out for regulation is not working. And it’s small and medium-sized companies that feel the brunt of the pressure, as is reflected by the ICAEW survey where the medium sized firms are showing the steepest decline in optimism.

This weakening confidence is likely to be in part due to the legislative burden — including the removal of the default retirement age, the agency workers directive and the right to request flexible working which all come into force in 2011.

The survey of 1,000 businesses paints a pretty gloomy picture to be honest. It seems exporters are having a much better time of it than businesses that only trade here in the UK, so if you have ideas for exporting maybe 2012 should be the year to start exploring those opportunities.

When the Chancellor delivers his Autumn Statement on the 29th November let’s just hope he does as the ICAEW has suggested and shows a “renewed commitment to the Growth Plan...such as suspending new business regulation for a year.”

What would you like to see the Chancellor announce?

Andy Parker
Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Planner

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