There does not seem to be much good news around at the moment in terms of the economy and many SMEs are struggling to adapt to the challenges they face.
What can further stunt growth and stifle investment is the endless red tape that can make business owners feel confused and intimidated.
The Chancellor looks to be addressing some of these concerns, so it is worth understanding how things might be changing for your SME in the near future.
What red tape is the Chancellor planning to scrap?
In the same way that shifting auditing thresholds allowed smaller businesses to go about their work without worrying about extra admin, many of the changes in the Chancellor’s ‘business blitz’ are set to make things easier for small companies.
Specifically, the business blitz proposals include:
- Increasing size thresholds for corporate reporting and cutting duplicative requirements, meaning lighter-touch requirements for up to 44,000 medium-sized private companies and around 7,000 subsidiary companies, who will no longer be required to produce Strategic Reports.
- Removing the need for any company to submit a Directors’ Report to Companies House.
- Digital verification of planning documents, speeding up approvals for local projects.
- An online register of underground pipes and cables to prevent lengthy and unnecessary delays caused by accidents.
- Less frequent data returns for thousands of banks, insurers and asset managers, with the Financial Conduct Authority scrapping lower-value returns and the Prudential Regulation Authority cutting the number of times firms need to update financial reports.
The key takeaways from this announcement should centre on the ability for many SMEs to operate with greater agility.
As part of that, the Chancellor is also seeking to change Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) to streamline them with regular market remedies for deals.
Rather than the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) panel decision-making system for investigations, there is a proposal that will see reviews conducted in-house.
It’s hoped that this will maintain the stringency of the reviews into M&A deals that threaten to limit competition, but without the administrative burdens that can often delay M&As.
What will these changes mean for my SME?
The major changes will need to undergo consultation and legislation may need to be updated to accommodate the outcomes.
Ultimately, the business blitz signals a shift towards deregulation.
We may not yet know how the Autumn Budget is going to impact SMEs, but giving them a greater scope for agility and dynamic handling of their finances and structures could be a positive way of countering some of the challenges.
Of course, there is a risk with deregulation that vital safety rails get cut without care.
We previously mentioned that English local councils were suffering after deregulation dropped auditing standards and we would not want to see that repeated with SMEs.
As such, we can help you maintain best practices even as regulations change.
Our quality advice and services will still be available even as your obligations shift, so feel free to seek professional support as you need it.
