UK Business Barometer

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The March UK Business Adviser Barometer survey questionnaire received 165 responses. It focused on broadband connection, the upcoming Budget, business reputation, training processes, buying an existing business, business support in rural areas, business journals plus the quarterly trend questions.

Connection to broadband is becoming more available now, although it is still unevenly spread geographically - 25% of respondents do not have local facilities available to them yet. It is clearly seen as a useful means of communication as only 22% of responding Advisers have no plans for connecting at present. Nearly 1/3 are already connected and 22% are intending to get a connection.

With the Budget due out on 9th April 2003, businesses and business advisers were keen to see adjustments which ease their trading circumstances. We asked the same question in both the UK Business Barometer Survey and the UK Business Adviser Survey for March. The two issues which emerged as clear leaders are red tape and incentives for business support. UKBAB results showed 39% putting red tape as most important, while 33% put incentives for business support first .28% of UKBB respondents rated red tape as no.1 while 31% were most in favour of incentives for business support. Incentives for training and National Insurance contributions, which are due to increase from the beginning of the financial year, were the top issues for 10% and 11% respectively of the UKBAB respondents.

There was strong support for the concept that reputation is as, if not more, important than pricing, with 53% of respondents backing this highly and 38% moderately highly.

Training and development for staff of smaller companies may be an issue for many employees as this month's survey shows that 56% of respondents find that less than 25% of their clients have planned training processes for their staff. Another 26% find that only between 25% and 50% of their client companies have planned training processes.

Over 1/5 of respondents have experienced an increase in the number of clients asking for advice about buying an existing business.

Business support for businesses not situated close to towns or cities may be more problematic to deliver. Out of the range of options presented in the Survey, far more Advisers believed that such rurally based businesses were best served by mentors living locally to them, rather than by using telephone or internet contact.

Business journals and magazines are one way in which Advisers can keep in touch with other areas of and developments in the business world and the Survey results reveal that 58% take two or three of these regularly, with another 24% receive or subscribing to between 4 and 7. .

The number of clients seeking business advice over the past 3 months is showing an increase over the previous quarter, both at the significant increase level, from 11% in December to 17% in March, and at the slight increase level, with 45% of advisers in March and 38% of advisers in December. With the same number reporting no change, there was a corresponding reduction in the total reporting decreases from 22% in December to 10% in March.

Over the last three months there has been an increase in the number of Advisers who have had a significant increase in clients wanting to start a business, from 5% to 13%. .

There has been a reduction, from 18% to 12%, in the number of Advisers observing a worsening of access to finance for their clients over the last quarter year. Otherwise, there was little change in condition. .

Over the January to March period in the labour market, many Advisers have noticed that a high proportion of their clients are finding a shortage of appropriately skilled labour. 29% of Advisers know of 51% - 75% of clients in this situation and 27% have between 26% and 50% of clients in this position. .

March Survey results are compared to December results with respect to the likely number of business failures in the next year. There was an increase in the number of Advisers who believe that between 11% and 50% of their clients are likely to cease trading, from 23% in December to 30% in March. There was an 8% decrease in the number of Advisers with up to 10% of clients likely to fail. .