According to exclusive research carried out by Financial Mail recently a staggering 60% of small business owners are delaying retirement due to the UK’s economic downturn.
One third of small business owners considering selling their businesses agree that the state of the UK economy has severely affected interested parties; with 20% suggesting the selling price had fallen, leaving them with little option but to continue working for longer.
Even those fortunate enough to have found a buyer and sold their businesses are finding harder times in retirement. A staggering 80% suggested the value of their pension fund had fallen since Labour came to power in 1997. More than one third suggested they would possibly set up another business to help manage financially.
Approximately 80% of those questioned believed the Government had failed to recognise the importance of small owner-managed businesses and the importance it plays in the UK economy, and blamed the Labour Government for economic mismanagement.
As a small business owner-manager myself, I strongly feel down trodden by both the Government and by the banking industry.
1 comment so far
1 Simon Tate // Oct 11, 2008 at 11:29 pm
The extent to which the current economic problems can be blamed on the Labour Government is a hard argument to make. If we have learnt anything in recent times then it is the sheer power which Wall Street possesses and that the fiscal policies applied in the UK can not provide a shelter against what happens across the Atlantic.
Britain, along with other nations and the American people themselves must demand reform in the important financial centres of the world. Only when this exists will a more stable environment allow individual governments to then pursue economic strategies which benefit their home nations.