On 24 June I was invited to be part of a delegation from the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) asked to a meeting at 10 Downing Street. Originally we were supposed to meet David Cameron but the verdict of the phone-hacking trial of his previous special adviser, Andy Coulson, had been announced that day, so understandably he was otherwise engaged.
Nevertheless, we had an insightful meeting and it was certainly a useful platform to voice some of the concerns and recommendations of our members. During the meeting we called for :
- Switch to growth finance rather than just start-ups
- Boost to International Festival for Business
- Better tasking of Ambassadors overseas for UK businesses wanting to trade in those markets
- Improved links between civil servants and business
- UKTI and UKEF awareness needs to be tackled, but the services they offer are pretty good, including in the regions
- Business services staff in UKTI and elsewhere should have a business background
- Their concern to be noted about a shift of resource from small to medium-sized companies in UKTI
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