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Yes, Prime Minister!

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10 Downing Street

I am extremely honoured to have been invited to 10 Downing Street for an evening reception with Gordon Brown next Thursday 11th Feb.  The purpose of the evening is to celebrate the success of Britain’s SMEs.  ACUMEN BUSINESS LAW have been selected to attend this prestigious event. 

I think this is such a valuable opportunity for local businesses to reach central government and I wanted to utilise it to make our voice heard.

Your opinion

I therefore wonder if you have any questions or comments that you would like me to raise with the Prime Minister? (sensible comments only please!)

I will collate the replies (before 9 February) and do my best to pass them on.

8 Comments

  1. Jeremy Taylor - 05/02/2010

    Hi Penina.
    This is a great idea. I would like to know when the business rates that are collected in the South East will be spent fairly on the South East. There is a monstrous inequity between the 100s of millions that are collected & the 10s of millions that are returned in direct grant.
    The infrastructure of the South East must be supported to allow it to grow.
    Many thanks
    Jeremy

  2. Caroline Tong - 05/02/2010

    Hi Penina
    That is great news congratulations! You could mention something about the continued lack of support for SMEs by banks.
    Hope it all goes well.

    Cassie Tong

  3. Jeremy Walker - 05/02/2010

    Well done I know that you deserve this recognition. I would like to know if Gordon Brown is under the impression that the EFG Loan scheme is working for SMEs, because on the ground it is not. The banks are either refusing to use this scheme or demanding personal guarantees before they will even consider it. This is not how it was designed to work so how can the government put this right and start offering some real help to SMEs?

  4. Neil Tomlinson - 05/02/2010

    Hi Penina, this is a great initiative…
    We’d like you to challenge GB’s commitment to a low carbon economy. As a Sussex based business pioneering bottled water without a bottle (in paper cartons) it’s terribly frustrating to have a standard VAT rate applied to all products irrespective of their ecological impact.
    Low carbon alternatives generally come with a higher cost base; the application of standard VAT rates consequently pushes up the retail price point of such products to border on being uncompetitive…
    Looking beyond the governments’ rhetoric, Green isn’t encouraged at all in the Brown economy…
    Many thanks
    Neil (twittering @neiltwaterguy)

  5. Jeremy Walker - 05/02/2010

    Whilst not wanting to appear greedy and putting two questions forward….. I would also like to know how the government sees the solution to the vast PAYE and VAT arrears that have accummulated within the SME sector during the recession, how are these debts to be paid off. HMCE have now been told to tighten up on this now and to get the arrears in, is this not going to put alot of SMEs out of business as the banks certainly will not lend them the money for this purpose?

  6. Peter Stewart - 05/02/2010

    Great news Penina. Well done and congratulations. When will the government realise that SME’s are still strangled by red tape and bureaucracy. How can the mountain of paperwork (electronic or otherwise) be reduced and when will the audit threshold be increased to a more realistic figure of (say) £15million?
    Many thanks

  7. John Newton - 05/02/2010

    Thats a great opportunity Penina
    Please put it to GB that SMEs be given a fair chance to have a go at contracts issued by central and local government. Very often find that the public sector is even more lazy than the private sector when it comes to issuing contracts and they will give all the work to whoever says they can do everything rather than parcelling it up so that SMEs have a chance to go for it. Or they raise the bar so that it is difficult for an SME to jump over. Very often all we get are the crumbs off the table after the Big Boys have had their big dinner! Thanks and Good Luck

  8. Claire Staniford - 08/02/2010

    Great news for you. Can you ask him why his government pretend to help small businesses and then raise employers NI contributions by another 1%, but up business rates by 10%, the VOA ignoring all attempts at contact to inform they are wrong and the latest nail in the coffin the Pension changes in 2012 which will mean even employing one person will cost 3% more.
    Have a good time. Claire

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