Grantrow Advisory Board Responds to Budget Announcement

The Grantrow Advisory Board's March meeting in Birmingham discussed the budget's impact on small business confidence, cost pressures, and growth strategies.

Members of the Grantrow Advisory Board March meeting held at Asha’s in Birmingham, discussed the budget announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 6th March, in particular small business confidence and creating a stable environment for steady business growth.

“Businesses are facing a range of cost pressures,” said Mike Gahir, Managing Director of Lakes Showering Spaces. “Rising energy and product costs have been made worse by events in the Red Sea. Wage inflation is spiraling out of control for certain roles. Over a three-year period, in one role, we have had to double the salary offered. Raising the National Minimum Wage, now the National Living Wage is understandable but does not help struggling businesses.”

“Our business model allows us to adjust prices in response to increased labour costs,” said Lisa Nicholson, Commercial Director of GMS Group. “The labour shortage isn't limited to high-skilled jobs. Many industries rely on low-skilled workers yet face difficulties filling roles despite a large inactive workforce (2.8 million). Whether a small National Insurance cut will incentivise them to return to work remains to be seen.”

The conversation turned to other measures being introduced. Jonathan Dudley, Managing Partner of Crowe UK said, “There is little evidence that any previous measures to encourage business investment have worked. If small businesses lack confidence, they are not going to invest. Macro level changes from the European Union concerning the origin of materials and the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism are not properly thought out and lead to a greater loss of small business confidence.”

“I think businesses are looking for some strategic thinking from their government. Currently, parties are distracted by a possible election. This means that their ability to focus is distracted and their eyes are being taken off the ball regarding issues that are hurting business performance today.” added Petro Nicolaides, special advisor to the West Midlands Mayor.

Also attending the dinner was Mani Raina, HR Director of Grantrow Ltd. She responded “the package of measures recently announced to help small business, such as increasing the amount of apprenticeship levy that can be transferred from large to small businesses, deregulatory measures, and introducing an industry-led ‘Invest in Women Taskforce’ to unlock private investment in female-led businesses, don’t do enough to level the playing field between large and small businesses. I am glad that the Prime Minister has recognised the voting power of small business employees and women, but we still need a credible strategy to deliver strong economic growth”.

The Grantrow Advisory Board was created in 2024 to develop thought leadership regarding small business growth. There are 5.5m small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs - less than 250 employees) in the UK. Total employment was 16.7 million (61% of all employees), whilst turnover was estimated at £2.4 trillion (53%). 4.1m SMEs have no employees. There are 200,000 SMEs with between 10 and 249 employees.