Dec 18, 2012

Government urged to cut red tape hampering SMEs

A leading stockbroker has urged the government to free businesses with fewer than 10 or 20 employees from almost all employment legislation.

Howard Shore, the executive chairman of Shore Capital Growth, suggests this would show a necessary commitment to encouraging SME growth.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: “I would say that anyone employing fewer than 10-20 people should be free from employment legislation, save for discrimination.

“They ought to be able to hire somebody and get rid of them three years later if they find they can’t afford them because then you create more jobs.

“The only way we’re going to resolve this debt problem is taking people off benefit and onto the workforce. I know from when I started how hard it was.”

Mr Shore founded Shore Capital in 1985 when he has 24 and he now employs 130 workers. However he indicated he may have struggled under current employment law.

He commented: “I don’t know how I could possibly deal with some of the health and safety legislation and employment legislation that exists today if I had two people and a secretary.

“You can’t afford to employ a human resources person; you can’t pick up the phone to a lawyer every three minutes. How do you possibly tackle it all?”

He suggested the government should encourage businesses to employ an additional employee, which he believes would “go a long way to solving the unemployment problem”.

Mr Shore also called upon banks to relax the amount of capital they have to hold for an undrawn overdraft, saying it is “killing small businesses”.

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