A fund aimed at supporting the growth of small businesses is announced by the government.
Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Small Business Minister, Andrew Griffiths, unveiled the Business Basics Fund – an £8m fund into boosting SME growth and performance across the country.
By aiming to improve business knowledge of technological advances in recent years such as cloud computing, mobile technology and e-purchasing, the UK could receive a £100bn boost to the economy and a 5% reduction in income inequality, according to CBI research.
Griffiths said: “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, with more than 1,000 new businesses starting up every day, and it is vital that we support them to grow through our Modern Industrial strategy.”
“The Business Basics Fund will test new and innovative ways of supporting small businesses to take advantage of technologies and management practices – giving small business leaders the tools and support they need to continue to thrive.”
The fund comes after the 2017 Be the Business initiative, an industry-led government measure to help businesses benchmark their current productivity levels and is the latest in a stream of schemes brought in to help boost business productivity.
CBI UK chief policy director, Matthew Fell, added: “UK businesses must do more to improve their productivity to get themselves match fit to compete globally in the years ahead.
“Low uptake of the nuts and bolts technologies of today is a key feature of the productivity puzzle that can, and must, be tackled.”
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