UK Business Barometer

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The September UK Business Adviser Barometer survey questionnaire received 151 responses.

This Survey was asking for views on delayed payment, expectations about the UK economy, advisers credentials and qualifications, computer based viruses and absenteeism. The quarterly 'trends' questions were also included this time.

Cash flow can be especially crucial for smaller businesses, and legislation which came into force a year ago now allows the charging of interest on overdue payments. Amongst the business adviser community responding to the UKBAB, 67% find that late payments still cause financial difficulties highly or moderately highly to their clients. 49% of respondents to the UK Business Barometer Survey (UKBB) find delayed payments are causing financial difficulties to a high or moderately high extent.

In addition we asked if delayed payment is becoming more of a problem. 34% of the responding businesses advisors and 44% of the UKBB respondents think it is:

We asked both the UKBAB and the UKBB respondents what their expectations are for the economy compared to a year ago. Both balanced towards optimism, with 1% of UKBAB respondents being significantly more optimistic and 37% being more optimistic, while 2% of the UKBB respondents were significantly more optimistic and 36% were more optimistic. 10% more business advisers than businesses thought it was about the same, while 26% of businesses were more pessimistic compared to 19% of advisers.

Most businesses use the services of a business adviser at some time or another and most advisers themselves are very aware of the importance of credentials. 52% of UKBAB respondents always offer assurances on their credentials, while 46% sometimes do. Only 1% of advisers found this question not applicable. In comparison, of the 75% of respondents to the UKBB who found this question applicable, 40% always seek to check credentials and 45% sometimes do.

There have been recent news stories of devastating computer system crashes due to the spread of ever more pernicious viruses. The extent to which this a problem for smaller businesses is less obvious, but only 36% of respondents to the UKBAB and the same percentage of UKBB respondents have never 'caught' a virus, while 33% of UKBAB and 28% of UKBB respondents have had one in the last month.

The vast majority of both UKBB and UKBAB respondents are well protected by anti-virus software; 79% from the UKBB and 83% from the UKBAB.

There have been recent reports that absenteeism is increasing in the workforce, but our surveys were fairly close in their results, with 51% of UKBAB saying it was the same as a year ago, and 54% of UKBB. 8% of UKBAB respondents say it increased and 3% say it decreased but 34% say they don't know, while 17% of UKBB respondents think it has increased, but 8% say it has decreased.

Trends Questions

Compared to the quarter ending in June, the overall weighted average number of clients seeking business advice has slightly decreased during the third quarter.

Amongst the respondents who found this question applicable, there has been a very small overall average increase in the number of people wanting to start a business in the third quarter compared to the second quarter.

Although the vast majority of advisers consider that there has been no change in the ability of their clients to gain access to finance in the last three months, where change has been noted, it has been more positive than in the June quarter, and the overall average has increased.

After adjusting for the 'don't know' response, the results from the June quarter and those from the September quarter on shortages of appropriately skilled labour were closely consistent.

For the second quarter running, the prospects for clients' business survival beyond a year are rated slightly higher on average by responding advisers, with 79% expecting 10% or less to cease trading compared to 75% in June.

Views expressed are those of individual panellists and may not represent those of the IBA or the University of Nottingham.

It would be interesting to know how many of the late payers are government bodies or departments.