The Federation of Small Businesses has welcomed a budget with “no nasty surprises”.
National chairman John Wright said: “We welcome the freeze on fuel duty until October, but the issue is unlikely to go away. The cost of fuel is damaging small business and their customers in every industry and every area of the country.”
“The federation supports plans to improve access to finance by expanding the small firms loan guarantee scheme and help female entrepreneurs and to give public sector procurement to small and medium-sized businesses all have our support. These plans will need to be backed up with real action.”
The trade should be wary of the aim of making non-domestic properties carbon-zero by April 2009, he said.
“This must be handled very carefully as it could restrict small businesses’ access to premises.”