Small UK businesses remain confident despite uncertain outlook

Three-quarters of Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses are confident about their growth prospects over the next 12 months despite tough political and economic conditions, according to new research.

Read more: UK economy rebounds in January after December slump

Almost 40 per cent describe themselves as “very optimistic”, with 70 per cent of small and medium-sized companies saying they were optimistic about growth over the next five years, research from payments service Barclaycard has today shown.

The research showed that on average the heads of “scale ups”, companies which have at least 10 employees and average annualised growth of 20 per cent or more over three year, said on average that they were looking to invest 30 per cent of turnover to secure progress.

Managing director of Barclaycard Payment Solutions Konrad Kelling said: “Confidence among scale-up businesses is certainly robust, with appetite for innovation and investment remaining strong. The combination of businesses’ optimism and commitment to investing to achieve growth bodes well for their success.”

Bianca Miller-Cole, director of London business consultant The Be Group, said of companies' positive outlook: “They are usually smaller in size and therefore more agile. They can be innovative, they can try new things out, there isn't as much red tape.”

“I think that in the most part allows them to continue to create new opportunities to look at the world a little bit differently, to change as is necessary to account for the changing environment”, she said.