Business News

Lack of skills holding back growth

Filed under: Small Business News — Alan @ 1:31 pm

Analysts are suspecting that one of the reasons the economy is failing to grow is because there is a lack of skills in the marketplace. The British Chambers of Commerce have recently said that they would like to expand but have been unable to because there is a lack of skilled labour in the market.

This lack of skills has meant that companies with over 50 employees have been unable to find the right new staff so that they can expand at the level they wish. Many companies are turning to overseas and other markets to find the skills that they require but many regulations are making this challenging and the British Chambers of Commerce have called on the government to introduce measures to alleviate this significant problem.

John Longworth is the director of the BCC and he has said, “The government has to think to the future and realise that some of the largest companies in Britain are the future multinationals of the world. The government have to give these companies the skills they need otherwise they will not be able to expand. Unfortunately, companies have a lack of confidence in the education system and its ability to deliver staff with the skills that they require.”

Small business still can not get finance

Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 5:56 am

Even though £200bn has been added to the UK financial system by the Government, small and medium sized businesses are still have problems finding finance a report by the British Chambers of Commerce stated.

According to the report, about a third of all companies included in the survey said that they had a harder time finding finance access within the last three months. Out of those questioned, 3% said the finance situation had improved while an overwhelming 64% said that it had not changed.

Director of the BCC, David Frost, stated that their survey showed that the largest issue still facing British SMEs is high demand for services and products. He continued to state that it has become clear that despite the government’s attempts to pump money into the financial system the efforts are not aiding SMEs in finding funding.

This is especially true for businesses looking for money to aid expansion or future success.

Frost also called for the government to consider implementing a new set of measures that will help increase the confidence felt towards SMEs by the UK public. He stated that a great place to start would be by scrapping the increase in National Insurance that is planned for 2011.

Despite the concerns over finance, the report showed that the largest problem is actually the lack of customer demand in holding businesses back from expanding instead of trouble finding finance.

The BCC survey questioned 400 firms about their viewpoints on the lending situation that exists currently in the UK.