SMEs 'need more government support'
Published On 6 February 2007 at 12:45:07
A leading Liberal Democrat MP has called on the government to provide more support for small to medium sized businesses (SMEs).Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole and a member of the Committee of Public Accounts, was speaking following the government's decision to streamline the Small Business Service, which is a sub-unit of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Ms Brooke claimed that the government had heeded the committee's concerns regarding the effectiveness of the Small Business Service.
"The new, slimmed down unit must now do what its predecessor never managed: justify its existence," she said, stressing that the department must draw up an action plan for cutting the number of small business support programmes from the current total of 3,000 to under 100.
"Britain's small businesses are too important for our economy for them to waste time and money trying to understand where to get support and attempting to cut a way through the present forest of regulation," Ms Brooke concluded.
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