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Recent research

The Forum of Private Business undertakes three types of research:

Referendum is a quarterly ballot, which provides the mandate for our campaigns, lobbying activity and product development, to make sure that everything we do is linked to the needs and concerns of our members. This benefit is available to all members of the Forum of Private Business through our Communications Director business solution.
Once or twice a year we ask our member panels about key issues on topics that interest them. This information is more qualitative and adds depth to our campaigning. Panels are open to all members and more information can be found here.
We also undertake ad hoc research on special issues, where we will contact a selection of our members and ask them a short questionnaire on a particular topic. A recent example is our research on exporting and foreign exchange.

Taxation

With the prospect of rising taxes in the short- to medium-term, most businesses understand the reality of tighter fiscal controls. However, there is a balance to be struck between raising taxes to repay the national debt and leaving more money in the hands of small businesses to promote wider economic growth. Our most recent tax and budget panel looks at the impact of the taxation system on smaller employers and the need for a taxation system that encourages employment. Download our latest report from January 2011, which assesses the impact of another VAT change and where owners feel the issues are with specific business taxes.

Previous research from the tax and budget panel, highlighted the need for fairness and transparency in the taxation system (themes later picked up in the Emergency Budget in June 2010), as well as highlighting that the level of taxation on small employers was the key issue that stopped business development. Download this report here.

Cash flow and finance

Following our Economic Downturn panel and Referendum research on 'Preparing for Growth' in September 2009, we focused our research on how access to finance had changed and the importance of credit information. Our research with Future Route looked at the importance of management accounts for businesses, and further research with Graydon UK analysed the issues around credit control, and also anticipated the need for business finance in 2010.

This updated the results from our survey in December 2008 on issues related to the cost of and access to finance, and the impact of this on trading.

Our latest panel on cash flow and finance reported in September 2011 on cash flow and finance. The panel focussed on how smaller firms dealt with late payment, looking at the effectiveness of legal and informal methods of getting customers to pay. The panel also looked at alternative finance, examining whether such products and suppliers would be wanted by smaller firms over the longer term. Download the report here.

Exporting and foreign exchange

The Forum and Global Reach Partners Ltd have worked together to understand how smaller firms could use international trade to develop their businesses more profitably and with less risk. The research also looked at the impact of currency fluctuations and other cash flow issues, such as late payment and supply chain insolvency, have had on their business development. Download the full report here.

Health and Safety

Safety in the workplace has been put into the spotlight following the publication of the Young report at the end of 2010. In October 2010, our health and safety panel reported on key issues effecting small employers as to inform our submission to the Young Report. Download the report in full.

Our latest panel report was undertaken just before the announcement of the Lofstedt review. Our findings broadly corroborate the need for and scope of the review, which will report in Autumn 2011. The results can be found here.

Red tape

Our members complain that the current legislative framework is unwieldy and does not focus on the needs of smaller employers. For this reason we undertook a comprehensive analysis of the costs of compliance for small and medium sized employers to highlight the burden of red tape on our members in 2009, we updated this important research in the Autumn 2011 in Referendum 196. The results can be found here.

In 2010, we also looked at the red tape issues, our panel members provided a broad overview of where they thought the administrative elements of running their business were excessive. Click here to view the results.

As well as the taxation system, employment law and health and safety were considered the most time consuming legislative requirements by our members. For this reason we have undertaken a number of panels on these issues.

Employment law

Our employment law panel helps us to campaign for changes that will help smaller employers dealing with the complex issue of employment law. So far we have undertaken three employment law panels:

The first panel (February 2010) provided insights on the barriers small businesses find to employing, the advantages of having a legal framework and the potential problems with the latest legislative changes, such as the default retirement age. Click here to view the results.
The second panel (October 2010) provides information on possible improvements that could be made to the process in which EU directives become law, changes to the impact of employment law as a result of the recession, and specific suggestions for reducing the burden of legislative compliance. Click here to view the results.
The third panel (April 2011) looked at the Employer's Charter, resolving workplace disputes and pensions. Click here to view the latest results.

Recruitment, skills and training

Between 1997 and 2007, 65% of new employment opportunities were created by organisations with under 250 employees. Our members told us their needs and views on recruitment, skills and training in a survey we conducted in June 2008. Download the results here.

The skill and training research has been updated in January 2010 through our Referendum research and the first skills and training panel results. Following on from the skills and training panel, our Referendum (195) looked at the need for management and financial training, which was highlighted in the research and the ways businesses look to recruit.

Our latest report in July 2011 on training and skills focuses on work-based training schemes such as apprenticeships and work trials. The research also looked at the issues and incentives needed by businesses to recruit. The report can be found here.

Environment

Our first environmental panel in 2009 reported on how smaller businesses responded to questions on the drivers behind becoming more environmentally friendly and what support they may need. Download the results here.

Rising utility prices meant that the second environmental panel looked at green issues from the perspective of reducing costs through investment in metering, investing in new machinery and focussing on minimising use fo resources. The report also looked at the support provided for smaller firms and government schemes such as the Green Deal and extending the usage of Energy Performance Certificates. The results can be found here.

Research on key costs for businesses

We also undertake research to help us in our lobbying activities on key cost areas for businesses. Our latest Referendum highlighted the issues for our members caused by the increased cost of doing business and their inability to pass all the costs on to their customers. The report looks at uncompetitive practices (from late payment and tax avoidance to bribery) and assesses the impact of rising business costs on the companies themselves. Download the results here.

In June 2010, we conducted a survey of members in which 62% of respondents told us that they felt the newly established coalition should introduce tighter regulations on the banks and utilities firms. Over the last two years the focus has been on utilities, finance (these results are shown in the monthly panels on the economy) and property costs.

Following domestic energy price increases between 7% and 10%, we are increasingly concerned that the emphasis on green taxation and the lack of clarity in the complaints process will mean that small business owners could see utilities prices increase disproportionately over the next 12 months. We asked business owners to tell us their views on the rising cost of utilities to help us hold utilities providers to account. Download the results of our 2010 utilities research here.

Recent research has targeted property costs to support our campaigning on the revaluation of business rates and our research on utilities after our members reported exorbitant rises in gas and electricity bills.

Monitoring smaller firms during the recession

Following concerns from our members during the recession, we created a series of monthly updates to monitor their confidence and business needs. For this purpose we created a panel in 2008 called the Economic Downturn Panel, made up of 120 members, and then a larger panel in 2010 called Economy Watch, consisting of over 350 members. The panels focused on banking and finance, providing evidence on the cost of and access to finance.

Economy watch 2010

Economic Downturn Panel