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SME Council


Meetings
Priorities
Membership
Current members

The SME Council is the focal point within the CBI for identifying and addressing issues of particular interest to small and medium-sized firms. It provides a voice for them to influence mainstream CBI policy and influence government at home and abroad.


Meetings

The SME Council meets four times a year; usually in London. SME Council meetings are an opportunity for CBI policy groups to consult with members on policy issues. The CBI director-general and the deputy director-general often attend meetings as do external guests.

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Priorities

The SME Council is currently focusing on a number of issues:
  • Business support – the CBI is lobbying for a business support network that is demand-driven and customer-led.
  • SME tax issues - the main channel for SME Council’s tax work is through our CBI's Enterprise Budget submissions to HM Treasury ahead of the Budget and Pre-Budget Report. The submissions are traditionally based around the theme of encouraging business growth, through correction of anomalies, tax nothings, simplification and incentives.
  • SME tax issues – the main channel for SME Council's tax work is through our Enterprise Budget submissions to HM Treasury ahead of the Budget and Pre-Budget Report. The submissions are traditionally based around the theme of encouraging business growth, through correction of anomalies, tax nothings, simplification and incentives.
  • Regulation – the SME Council work with closely with the CBI's regulation policy advisers to lobby for a risk-based approach to policy-making, inspection and enforcement, and embedding the culture of "think small first" across Whitehall.
  • Access to finance – work on improving the availability of finance for SMEs has focused on encouraging government to address market failures. In particular the SME Council is calling for the government to seek further ways to address the £250,000 to £3m equity gap facing SMEs seeking growth capital and to make the 'incidental costs', up to £20million, of raising equity finance deductible for corporation tax purposes.


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Membership

SME Council members are typically owner-managers of small and medium-sized growing businesses. The Council has a membership of around 35 companies, spanning all the UK regions and a wide variety of business sectors.

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Current members

The SME Council is chaired by Russel Griggs, a board member of Future Route.

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