Small and medium-sized enterprises believe that government support is biased towards big business, and are calling for any simplified support scheme to redress the balance.

A survey from the Federation of Small Businesses has found that 49% of small firms say that a simplified government business support scheme must be targeted less at big businesses and more at them.

Furthermore, 53% of respondents said there is a need to remove the big business bias from all services, and over half would prefer to have an independently tailored service geared towards the small business sector.

The findings come at a time when the government is trying to reduce the number of support services from 3000 to around 100, a process that should reduce the complexity of the current service, according to the FPB.

Colin Willman, FSB business support chairman, said the findings showed that small firms feel disaffected and alienated from the majority of government business services. He added:

“Yet again we are reminding the government of one of their own soundbites, which is to ‘think small first’.

“The government needs to offer greater acknowledgement to small businesses and the specific challenges they face. This applies equally to those at a start up level, supporting those who wish to remain steady, and those looking for growth.”

© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007