The organisations found that compared to SMEs in other markets, concerns about skills shortages were expressed almost entirely by those in the UK, with 15% of UK respondents highlighting the issue. Despite SMEs across the globe reporting greater access to growth capital, small UK businesses did not see much improvement.
Late payment
Furthermore, 90% of UK SMEs reported experiencing negative business outcomes in the current economic climate, including problems securing prompt payment. Late payment problems have increased significantly since late 2011 across the world, when 33% cited it as a business outcome, compared to 48% in the first half of 2013. However, SMEs in the UK were almost twice as likely to cite it as a problem compared to larger businesses.
Access to finance was also an acute issue for smaller companies in the UK.
The results were compiled from responses from the Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) between 2011 and 2013.
Obstacles
Rosana Mirkovic, ACCA’s head of SME policy, said: “Cash flow and access to finance difficulties are not new to SMEs, especially during what is a very fragile time of recovery for the smaller end of the business spectrum. However, our global analysis revealed trends that are very specific to UK SMEs, most notably a skills shortage.
“We keep hearing that same old cliché about SMEs being the lifeblood of the UK economy, but right now they are facing obstacles that their overseas counterparts are not. In the USA, for example, access to growth capital has increased considerably over the last 21 months. That’s not the case in the UK.”