Don't ignore the little guys

They could be the giants of the future

The lifeblood of the UK economy is the smaller businesses (and the mid-sized ones as well), so the Forum of Private Business' (FPB) advice to the Government not to ignore these players in its growth plans, is spot on.

Today Downing Street hosted a summit - chaired obviously by the prime minister David Cameron - attended by 19 of the UK's largest companies. As the FPB pointed out - no organisation representing the UK's 4.8m small businesses was in attendance.

It is all very well focusing on the giants - such as Sainsbury's - which today promised to create a further 20,000 jobs - but SMBs employ almost 60 per cent of the private sector working population and they need government support as well.

They are the ones hit hardest by all the employment laws, increased tax and business rates, rising transport and fuel costs, and most recently the VAT rise. They need nurturing and supporting to help them flourish.

I hope steps are taken to include the smaller businesses in these talks soon - after all - even the big guys started off small once.