Government and business

We asked businesses about what the government should do to help them, and how they have been working with the government

What should the government do to help businesses?

As part of our research we asked UK businesses to select their three most important priorities for the UK Government to tackle to support businesses in the UK. Half said ‘controlling inflation’ was the most important factor, followed by ‘growing the UK’s economy’ and specifically ‘reducing energy prices’. There were some variations at a subgroup level, with medium-sized businesses saying controlling inflation was a bigger priority, while micro and small businesses believe reducing the impact of red tape and growing the UK’s economy are key priorities.

What makes it hard for business to work for government?

Three-quarters of businesses say they haven’t submitted any tenders for local or national government in the past 3 years. The main reasons given for not working with government have been ‘there aren’t any tenders for the particular business’ line of work’, ‘not knowing about relevant work in their line of work’ and the view that ‘it’s hard for small companies to be successful at winning government tenders’.