The coalition is the first UK government to have an accountant in its Treasury team – this one has two – and this seems to have informed the pragmatic way in which it is trying to cut the nation’s clothes according to its cloth.
Let’s hope this also transforms into policies designed to help businesses grow. This would be the approach an accountant would take, as many did during the past two recessions: after minimising overheads and administration, cutting avoidable costs, and creating a lean, mean, fighting machine, survivors turned their attention to growth, and the financial resources this required.
Which is where many businesses are today: raring to go, but looking to the coalition for the sort of support that only a government can provide, and hoping it will be informed by the sort of insights that only an accountant can offer.
Time will tell (and hopefully sooner, rather than later). But rather than wait and see, the IFA recently took the opportunity to buttonhole the business secretary Vince Cable, and share with him the concerns of our members (and you can learn more about this in the next edition of Financial Accountant).
In 2010 the demand for less red tape was at the top of your list, and although this burden has yet to shrink, it may have been overtaken by more pressing concerns. But as the IFA will be conducting its annual Business Barometer survey in April, you will soon have an opportunity to bring us up-to-date, so please take time to respond.