I recently held another of my meetings with representatives of Bury businesses.  As usual a variety of concerns were aired. Some are specific to certain sectors others are of a more general nature. One continuing complaint is the availability of finance. I attended a meeting with the Chief Executive of the British Bankers Association and representatives of all the major High Street banks. It is perhaps not surprising that the views of the Bankers are at odds with those who complain to me. One reason for this is that those who are happy with the performance of their bankers do not often bother to contact me whereas those who are unhappy are much more likely to do so.

Another frequent area of complaint is the continuing problems caused by the complexity of employment laws and the risks involved in taking new employees on. I was particularly interested therefore when just a few days after my meeting the Government released the Beecroft Report 

Viable long term and secure jobs cannot be created by employment laws but by making life difficult for employers can certainly make it less likely that a potential employer will take on more staff in marginal situations. This is particularly so for small businesses which is why I welcome the reliefs being proposed for micro businesses employing less than ten employees.

Later in the day I visited Miller’s Vanguard a successful employer in Bury and was able to hear at first hand the progress they have made in recent years and about their plans for the future.