Lots of business owners including myself were disappointed with the Pre Budget announcement .

I had prayed that would have helped small businesses and started to address the key topics such as the current severe state of the public finances, Public sector Pay, helping and supporting the SME sector, encouraging saving and investing and making the banks to be realistic about lending to business enterprises.

Like most people I agree that we need to have a mixture of tax increases cuts in spending cuts.

The old line from the government is that immediate cuts in spending would hurt the UK and the recovery. My perspective is that although wholesale accelerated cuts could cause a problem, the timescales proposed is just a little too late.

It seems that the Chancellor is just piddling around the edges of reform and does not want to rock the boat too much just before an election.

The result of raising public borrowing can be seen when you look at the Irish Economic System. The once Celtic tiger has had its claws taken out. Real cuts in earnings are a realism along with swathing proposals to cut back public borrowing.

I virtually choked on my dinner on wednesday, whilst watching the six o clock news. Public sector representatives were protesting about a cap on salary increases of 1%.

I would preferably be in that situation, as opposed to being a worker for local government or public sector in .

Many small company owners have actually taken pay reductions in the last year, due to the economic slowdown.

As ifa’s we offer a Small Business Advice service to our clients on a monthly basis. I would have opted to see a more fundamental approach to supporting business & SME businesses as they are an important part of the economy.