Small businesses can save the UK economy

According to a former head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the struggling UK economy will be saved by small businesses.

Speaking at the opening of BT’s Small Business Week on Tuesday, Lord Digby Jones said: “They are the only ones which create the wealth that can pay the taxes which can repay the public debt.”

He encouraged small businesses to “move up the supply chain by providing value-added, innovative goods and services” that could then be sold around the world. While the UK economy was still in the doldrums, Lord Jones noted that China and India were still managing 9 and 6 per cent growth respectively.

“The only way to get out of the economic mess we’re in is to trade our way out of it,” he said.

Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Peter Jones agreed: “We need to think about how to make smaller businesses compete, not just on a national, but on a global scale.”

The trouble is that Britain suffers from an underlying envy of successful businesses, thinking that business owners will become ‘fat cats’. Instead, we need to nurture a culture, not of envy, but of aspiration, where business owners are encouraged to be successful, thereby creating wealth – yes, for themselves, but also for those that they employ.