Small business confidence falls to lowest level since financial crash

The data revealed that 67% of small firms do not expect their performance to improve this quarter.The index revealed that 58% of businesses say the domestic economy is a significant barrier to growth, up from 55% at this time last year.Access to appropriately skilled staff (36%), lack of consumer demand (29%) and labour costs (21%) are also frequently flagged as primary barriers to growth.Small businesses in the accommodation and food services (-48%), retail (-44%) and manufacturing (-16%) sectors report some of the lowest index readings.FSB national chairman, Mike Cherry, said: “How have politicians allowed it to come to this? Two and half years on from the Brexit vote and small businesses are looking ahead to Brexit day with no idea of what environment they’ll be faced with in less than ten weeks’ time.