The East of England still lags behind the national average in terms of confidence and year to date confidence is still down by -22%.
Business revenue remains stable with high levels of optimism regarding future revenue growth for small businesses in the East. Employment rates also remain about average with a net change of 2% in the region. In the East of England, small businesses have been progressively increasing the average salary over the past year. In Q1 2022, 65% of small businesses surveyed cited that they are considering increasing staff salaries in the months ahead. However, for many small businesses wage inflation is presenting a challenge, with 34% of small businesses stating that labour costs are a barrier to growth.
East of England small businesses continue to demonstrate an appetite and ambition for growth, with nearly half of small businesses intending to grow rapidly over the next 12 months. However, inflation remains a very real threat to business growth along with labour costs, other barriers to growth for local businesses are the domestic economy (52%) and fuel costs (41%).
It is important for policy makers to support the East of England’s return to positive sentiment and take action to protect small firms from the rapid rise in fuel costs and to positively take steps to grow the domestic economy with small business centric policies.