Big growth for small companies

The Small Research Business Trust has also been working with National Westminster Bank on its quarterly survey of small businesses in the UK. The survey reveals that small businesses have reported the biggest increase in employment for more than four years, with over a quarter of the 1046 businesses which replied saying that they had taken on more staff in the third quarter of 1994 compared to less than one tenth in the same period in 1992. `This latest survey shows that we are at last seeing the increase in small-business sales feeding through into job creation,’ says NatWest’s head of small-business services Ian Peters. But Peters adds that small businesses remain cautious about the strength of the recovery. `This is not surprising, given the fact that the main problem which continues to plague small businesses is a lack of business. Only sustained economic growth can help this problem.