by business editor Trevor Sturgess

The Chancellor has been urged to put smaller enterprises at the heart of his March 20 Budget.

The small is beautiful message has been sent to George Osborne, demanding better access to finance, simpler taxes and permanent business rate relief.

The 6,500-member Federation of Small Businesses in Kent and Medway wants a "Budget for Small Firms” to boost investment, growth and job creation which would all restore confidence. The FSB has called for incentives to take on new staff.

It said small firms in the county were ambitious and wanted to grow but consistently cited finance and access to long-term capital as barriers.

Despite the Funding for Lending Scheme, which has injected billions of pounds to offer borrowers, the Chancellor needed to accelerate plans for a Business Bank.

The FSB wants the Chancellor to press ahead with a proposal that small firms with a turnover of less than £77,000 need only provide cash-based accounts.

It also urges the Chancellor to :

• Extend the National Insurance Contributions holiday to small Kent firms in Kent with fewer than four staff rather than just start-up businesses.
• Cancel the 3p fuel duty rise planned for September 2013 and to initiate a full review of fuel prices and motoring taxation
• Help boost businesses cash-flow, by ensuring that when it is awarding contracts that its Tier 1 suppliers are signed up to the Prompt Payment Code and pay their supply chains quickly.
• Extend the money available through StartUp Loans scheme to help more Kent residents who struggle to access finance to start a business.

Roger House, FSB chairman in Kent and Medway, said: “With the economy only growing a fraction in 2012, the Chancellor must deliver a Budget that is unashamedly focussed on boosting small business.

"Our figures show that confidence is rising among Kent’s small business owners, but there is still caution.

"And, even though unemployment has fallen considerably, consumer confidence to spend and boost the economy is far from sufficient.”

He added: “What we need to hear on March 20 is not more small-scale policies which tinker at the edges but measures that will have a tangible effect both immediately and in the long-term.”