CAMBRIDGESHIRE should follow Suffolk’s example by outsourcing its activities, Huntingdonshire’s small business leaders believe.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE should follow Suffolk’s example by outsourcing its activities, Huntingdonshire’s small business leaders believe.

The comment, from Malcolm Lyons, Huntingdonshire chairman of the Dederation of Small Businesses coincide with a national survey showing that three-quarters of small firms think the coalition Government should cut spending to tackle the public deficit.

“Suffolk has got it right by outsourcing,” he told The Hunts Post. “But I’m not sure it’s good when social enterprise competes with small businesses.

“However, it will be interesting to see how imaginative our council will be.”

The FSB told the Conservative Party conference this week that 74 per cent of

small businesses think the Government should cut public spending and six in

10 said they were more willing to accept cuts in public spending because of

the size of the public sector deficit.

The FSB recommended the Government to cut the business support budget to �500million and concentrate spending on business support for micro businesses.

The emphasis on access to finance should be on ensuring the banks meet small business demand. The FSB believes bodies such as Capital for Enterprise Limited should be privatised.

It called on the Government to extend the National Insurance contributions holiday to existing firms, providing incentives for businesses with zero to four members of staff

when they take on up to three more employees; to provide fast and reliable broadband to help small firms grow their business online, which could create 600,000 new jobs; to promote small business services at the Job Centre; and to increase the VAT threshold to �90,000, saving business up to �162 million per year.

Mr Lyons explained: “The Government has said it wants the recovery to be enterprise-led and while, small businesses have said they want the Government to tackle the public deficit, business and economic growth must be a priority.

“We have heard time and time again that small businesses are the drivers of the UK economy and the job creators of the country. The 4.8 million small firms truly are: they employ more than half of the private sector workforce.

“We all know we are living in an age of austerity and that tough decisions must be made in the Comprehensive Spending Review, but small firms need the right measures in place so they can fulfil their role as innovators and job creators.”