Kingsbridge and Salcombe Chamber of Commerce
Meeting at Thurlestone with members of the Chamber of Commerce to discuss problems facing businesses in South Devon and Conservative proposals to help. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and for some of the detailed letters that I have received following on from the meeting.
There were many issues raised including the VAT threshold, the pressing need to make it easier to take on more employees and above all the problems that businesses are having with banks. It cannot be acceptable for businesses to have unilateral and often arbitrary sounding penalties imposed such as the abrupt halving of overdrafts, the imposition of ‘monitoring fees' and standing order charges or the delayed clearance of payments. It is a depressing reality for businesses that Government insured enterprise finance loans have not always been advanced in a way that many businesses would have found helpful.
All of these situations have resulted in businesses not taking on staff who would otherwise having been creating local employment.
