Partner Article

Why is business confidence falling? Last week’s poll results are in

Confidence among small businesses fell at the end of last year, knocked by December’s severe weather and the rise in VAT to 20% at the beginning of 2011, a survey had said.

The Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) quarterly survey said that confidence in the service and transport sectors had been particularly affected.

The FSB also warned that growth in 2011 was likely to be “sluggish at best”.

On last week’s bulletin, readers were asked what the main reasons were for the apparent fall in business confidence and the results are now in!

A total of 72 votes were made and of those, only 8% of you thought a decline in business confidence was a result of the hike on VAT and fuel duty.

A tenth of all votes believed constraints on business cash flow was a core reason for the lack of confidence and just over 15% of you blamed the on-going cuts in the public sector.

The vast majority of votes, a whopping 67%, thought business confidence is sliding as a direct result of all of these factors combined.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .