FSB calls for small business survival fund

Date: 17th November 2008

A small business survival fund is needed to help firms make it through the coming recession, it has been claimed.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is demanding for a £1 billion rescue package for smaller enterprises to be included in next Monday's (November 24th) pre-budget announcement.

Any proposals by the chancellor for rises in corporation taxation should also be scrapped, the FSB has argued.

John Wright, national chairman of the FSB, said: "The government must do everything it can to ensure small firms do not need to turn to alternative and expensive sources of finance.

"A small business survival fund will provide the urgently needed solution."

The FSB added that a planned increased in corporation rates from 21 per cent to 22 per cent next year would add further burden to the sector.

With over 215,000 members in the business start-up community, the FSB exists to promote the interest of the self-employed and those who run their own enterprise.