Confidence among the South West’s small firms has fallen once again and is now significantly below the national average, according to a new survey.
The latest quarterly report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) reflects a level of SME pessimism among members across the region not seen since the aftermath of the financial crash nearly a decade ago. 
The figures reveal that in the South West almost half – 46% – of small businesses expect their performance to worsen over the coming three months, with fears with the uncertainty over Brexit having an impact on views about trade and investment.
Of the South West members who took part in the survey – which was conducted before this week’s dramatic Brexit-related political events – 70% do not expect to increase capital investment in the coming three months – with 17% of them planning to actively decrease investment.
Skills also remains a local worry with the number of small firms in the South West region citing lack of access to appropriately skilled staff as a barrier to growth having risen to over a third.
FSB Bristol area lead Ken Simpson, pictured, said regardless of peoples’ views on Brexit the results show that what happens in Parliament does have a direct impact on the plans and activities for business.
“These figures clearly show that uncertainty is a huge factor in business confidence – and this is a very uncertain time indeed,” he said.
“Politicians of all views need to take account of the fact that the UK small business community is the driving force of this economy and it needs stability to continue to do so. We can’t just ignore these falling confidence figures here in the South West as traditionally this has been one of the regions with the most positive outlook,” he said.
FSB national chairman Mike Cherry said that the sooner the Brexit negotiations and debate could be concluded, the quicker politicians can concentrate on other issues that can affect business confidence.
“We’ve not seen political uncertainty weighing on small business confidence like this for many years,” he said.
“As things stand, Brexit is absorbing all of the UK’s political bandwidth. Once resolved, we must get back to issues on the domestic agenda: a late payment crisis that destroys 50,000 firms a year, an outdated business rates system and spiralling employment costs.”
On the plus side, the FSB report shows that nationally, small businesses are continuing to hire new personnel, with more than one in six taking on a member of staff in the past three months. Nearly seven in ten have also increased pay compared to last year, significantly more than in the same period in 2017.
Mike Cherry added: “These figures are testament to the resilience and grit of small business owners’ right across the UK. They’re still hiring, increasing wages and aspiring to grow. All is certainly not lost. There is a huge amount of drive and ambition among our small businesses. If they’re given certainty and the support they need, their full potential can be realised.”
