Have your say and help shape policy - join a member panel
25 January 2010
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Do you often read about what the Government's up to and have a thing or two to say about it? FPB member panels give you a chance to have your say, plus help to support our campaigns and your fellow small business owners. Read on to find out about some of our recent successes, or sign up to a member panel here.

Sometimes it is easy to predict what our members might think about an issue. As a rule of thumb, if a change is likely to cost a business owner time or money, there needs to be a good reason why we would support this change.
 
However, it is often not that easy, so we have to ask our members what would help them run their businesses more profitably and effectively. An increasingly important way in which we do so is through our member panels, which allow us to look at issues in a little more depth and collect evidence to submit to key decision-makers.
 
Thanks to our panel members, the economic downturn panel consistently led debate on the issue of bank finance in 2008/9, highlighting issues such as sudden increases in charges and the demands for additional security far in advance of feedback from other sources.
 
We are now looking to replicate this sort of influence in other areas by providing practical solutions to some of the big issues facing small businesses. 
 
 
Our environmental panel reported in December, in time for the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit. Our member said they wanted:
    • Less gimmickry in grants and funding for environmental support. Businesses are not aware who is offering this support and there is now an assumption that they aren't an effective use of time.

    • More incentives for businesses to ‘go green', rather than increased taxation. In particular, schemes that encourage businesses in rented commercial property and their landlords would reduce a significant barrier to upgrading properties.

    • If resources such as petrol, energy and water are to be taxed further, there needs to be a reduction in other taxation.
In our tax and budget panel, members were asked whether the priority for the taxation system should be fairness, simplicity, international competitiveness, certainty, stability or efficiency. 
 
Although fairness was the most frequent response, members generally responded that all these concepts were interlinked, as a simple system would be easier to understand and unfair elements of taxation would be highlighted. 
 
Other findings included:
    • The burden of taxation on smaller firms, particularly employers, is the biggest problem right now as the tax rises are increasingly less affordable.

    • Uncertainty is an issue as businesses are certain that there will be further increases in business taxation but are not sure where and how.  The heavy use of stealth taxes has made it very difficult for businesses to plan long term and some business owners are worried about the increase of National Insurance contributions as a statement of intent.

    • Many improvements to the taxation system were proposed, such as payment of corporation tax in instalments and merging National Insurance with PAYE into one payroll tax, however many felt unable to answer this question as the taxation system was so complex.
The taxation panel results will be available from our website in February and will form the basis of our budget submission in March.
 
Economy watch
 
Following the success of our highly regarded economic downturn panel, whose results were fed directly to the Prime Minister and were featured on Panorama, we are creating a panel called economy watch to monitor developments in the real economy. To take part all you have to do is provide us with your email
address and complete a short online questionnaire every month for a period of six months.
 
The panel will cover areas such as consumer and business confidence, access to finance and recruitment. You can sign up here - we'd love to have you on board.
 
The insights we gain from these panels are proving invaluable for representing your business and your interests. If you would like to join any of the panel click here or email us at campaigns@fpb.org with the panels you'd like to join.
 


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