Half a billion pounds of extra funding is set to help small businesses after the government´s "Comprehensive Spending Review".
The Department of Trade and Industry is to receive an injection of resources to try to strengthen links between academic establishments and industry, and support more enterprise ventures through regional investment programmes.
The Small Business Service is set to receive up to £190m. The money will be used in part to encourage more start-up businesses in deprived areas. Regional innovation funds will obtain around £150m over three years.
Inland Revenue to cut investigations
The Inland Revenue is hoping to reduce the number of confrontational tax investigations by introducing a programme to offer better educational services.
Among new measures promised by their chairman Nick Montagu, the Inland Revenue will provide more electronic services, a new tax credit system and the option of payment in Euros.
Through an improved system of information, the Inland Revenue hopes to bring down the number of investigations in 2000/01 after last year´s figure exceeded the target of 77,800 by nearly 3,000 investigations. Settling the investigations more rapidly will also be a key objective.
It sounds like great news, but as with many Inland Revenue initiatives, only time will tell.
New debt helpline for SMEs
The Small Business Service (SBS) is backing a freephone helpline for businesses struggling with debt.
Advice and assistance will be offered by a partnership of staff provided by the seven main high street banks.
The debtline is open from 10am - 4pm on 0800 1976026. Debt advice packs are available on the SBS website on www.businessadviceonline.org
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