cropper's column
Page 56
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The Govt wants to help'
• If anyone can't believe that the Government helps small operators, he should read the Bolton Committee's Report published by HMSO late last year. Its pricy, at £2.55, but that's because its such a large and thorough volume.
Small operators are notoriously bad at finding out what is going on in the wider world. But they ought to know that the Bolton Committee was set up by the Government in 1969 to examine the contribution made by small firms to British business life and consider what steps should be taken to assist them. It proved a massive task, and one of great difficulty, for the small firm sector is extremely large and remarkably heterogeneous, and accounts numerically for the vast majority of business enterprises. The Committee. came to its own definition of a small .firm as one which is managed by the people who own it. The owner-managed business is '..characteristic of many operators in road transport, and so Bolton's findings ate important to them.
• Many recommendations have been made on various topics: the attitude of .government towards small firms; management skills; sources of finance; the impact of taxation; industrial training ; form-filling; disclosure provisions for companies:: town planning controls.
One thing is important to note: some recommendations have already been backed by the Government. The principal proposal, to establish a separate section Within the Department of Trade and Industry • to study and look after the interests of small firms,
has already been accepted. .
The Report submits two Main proposals on company law in relation to private limited companies: to exempt them from the requirement to disclose turnover when' this is below elm a year; and•to exempt companies with turnovers below that from the requirement to disclose individual directors' fees. • On town planning, it urges that the.present legal obligation of local 'authorities to:provide suitable alternative accommodation . to displaced firms should be strengthened, and that those local councils which are unhelpful should be encouraged to cater for the needs of small firms. It recommends that the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 shotild be changed so as to require local authorities. .tO Pay compensation for compulsory purchase which includes the value of. the likelihood of the tenancy being renewed; and that compensation on compulsory purchase should be assessed on the level of trade when notice to treat is served on a business.
At this time I can mention only one of the recommendations on taxation: that shortfall assessment on the trading incomes of close companies should be abolished, and no parallel provision should be included in the forthcoming revision of corporation tax.
Ralph Cropper