In the week that’s seen a late heat wave and torrential rain, the Government issued two weather-related statements that could affect SMEs.
Flood Resilience
Both the National Flood Resilience Review and Property Flood Resilience Action Plan were published this week, and both underlined the Government’s commitment to reviewing support and 
compensation for flooded businesses and investment in infrastructure to reduce flooding risk and impact.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) were closely involved with the Property Flood Resilience Action Plan and Andy Poole, a policy advisor for the FSB, was part of the target group tasked that looked at ‘Embedding resilience in small businesses’.
The group concluded that there is a need to:
- Explore new opportunities to raise awareness amongst brokers in the commercial sector
- Provide evidence directly to businesses about the benefits of making their property resilient to flooding
- Work across the insurance industry to understand and encourage the development of products and solutions that support businesses at risk of flooding
- Engage key small businesses (for example, landlords and business owners) who have different objectives and perspectives on this issue about the value and benefits of resilience measures to them.
Their action plan includes the establishment of a working party of insurers and brokers to explore how the impact of flood resilience measures are assessed and how to provide competitive quotes that will incentivise small businesses. There will also be a flood resilience ‘health check’ for small businesses, with the intention of potentially using the purchasing power of insurers to “leverage deals on appropriate flood resilient products.”
Bring Me Sunshine (At a Cost)
The Government have also announced plans that will be less happily greeted – their intention to increase business rates taxes on solar panels, which could mean that taxes for businesses with rooftop solar installations rise by between six and eight times from April next year.
FSB said the tax hike would discourage small businesses from investing in clean energy and further impact those already affected by recent changes to low carbon subsidies.
Mike Cherry, National Chairman of the FSB, said: “Microgeneration provides an opportunity for small businesses to invest in solutions that work for them. It reduces their dependence on a centralised energy grid and helps to meet the UK’s strict carbon reduction targets. However, micro-generators are already being discouraged in the market through a combination of regulatory, policy and practical constraints.
“The inclusion of renewable technology investment in the business rates calculation would further discourage small business investors, many of whom may already have been impacted by recent changes to low carbon subsidies.”