Home UK’s small businesses struggle with Brexit red tape
UK’s small businesses struggle with Brexit red tape
Many companies forced to shift operations to EU or risk sliding profits and lost sales
World Economy News
28 Jan 2021 • 4 min read
Britain’s small businesses warn profits are being wiped out and operations forced to move to Europe as they struggle to deal with the red tape and costs of trading with the EU after Brexit.
A month after the UK left the EU’s single market and customs union, British SMEs are still working out whether they can afford to maintain once-thriving export businesses with the bloc. For those which decide to continue, it is often at the cost of jobs in the UK as they move operations across the channel.
Crippling interest rates loom: Why we need to write off business loans for SMEs
Published 2 months ago Campaign.
UK businesses are hanging by the skin of their teeth. Just last week the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) reported that at least 250,000 small businesses will collapse in 2021 unless more support is offered to them under the current restrictions. This would bring the total number of SMEs that have folded since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to an estimated 470,000.
Accounting for over 50 percent of private sector turnover, these crisis-hit SME are engines of growth that lead innovation and provide new sources of employment, so it is imperative they are protected. Time and time again these businesses have dusted themselves off and started again, constantly adapting their business models to keep operating in the most challenging of circumstances.
Business groups have welcomed the extension of rates relief set out in the latest Scottish Budget, but urged Holyrood ministers to provide more support.
Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has extended the current 100% non-domestic rates relief for at least the first three months of the year, a move worth around £185 million.
She also said the current strategic framework business fund will continue beyond the current financial year, provided more money is forthcoming from the UK Government.
A number of groups representing business interests reacted to the Budget announced on Thursday afternoon.
Lockdown rules mean many shops and other businesses have closed completely (Andrew Milligan/PA)