The landscape for UK small business is strong, with a new report confirming confidence across the sector.
The report, from the Federation of Small Businesses, suggests that small businesses expect to grow this year, following a “robust” improvement in confidence during the past three months.
Encouragingly the research showed that business confidence was at its highest since the index was first published in 2010, with almost two-thirds expecting to grow moderately or rapidly in the next three months. Furthermore, there were “few negatives” to report, although geographic fluctuations were identified; most notably in that the South East continues to dominate business confidence.
Many respondents noted that the predicted economic growth meant that job creation, productivity and investment all look to be shaping up well for the remainder of 2015.
The FSB said productivity in the sector was increasing compared to the wider economy, something that should be encouraging to policymakers, who have been grappling with the issue of low productivity growth for some time.