Business confidence on the up in the UK

Recent research by the Telegraph Business Club for Santander Corporate Banking shows an improvement in confidence among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Now 75 per cent of a thousand companies surveyed say they are confident about short-term business prospects.

Around 17 per cent say they are planning to take on more staff in the run up to Christmas. Conversely, around ten per cent say they will be making cutbacks.

Slightly larger companies (turnover £1m - £4m) show 25 per cent increasing staff and 17 per cent reducing staff.

Another good sign of business confidence is the reduction in turnaround time for bill payments. Information services group Experian says that on average bills were paid two days faster in September than they were in August.

An interesting effect of the recession has been an increase in the number of women starting up their own businesses. Future Laboratory, who did the research, forecast that the number of women-run businesses will double to 2 million in the next ten years.