NEN Chairman, Alex Till commented: “It’s not just big business that is feeling the impact of the Brexit uncertainty. Support for small businesses, particularly in providing advice to start up and early stage businesses, is suffering as there remains no clarity on what funding will be available post Brexit, whatever that might be. Many of the Enterprise Agencies simply cannot plan from month to month, let alone year to year and we are looking to the Chancellor to recognise the importance of small businesses in our high streets when he stands up on Wednesday.”
In addition to providing some commitments to continuing with what have hitherto been European programmes, NEN is calling for a continuance of funding for the Start Up Loan scheme, and additionally an endorsement to the announcement made last week to make more Government contracts available to small businesses, with appropriate relaxations in the procurement paperwork.