South Warwickshire businesses believe that one of the main economic factors affecting their business is lack of support from the government, according to an opinion poll run by Chartered Accountants & Business Advisers Burgis & Bullock, at the firm’s recent Budget seminar.

It was also revealed that over 48% of the local businesses continue to have problems in attracting and retaining staff. In order to address this long-standing issue, employers should be looking at introducing more flexible hours, increasing the training opportunities and providing the option of a job-sharing scheme.

In addition, over 47% of the delegates agreed that cash flow and generation of new business have created problems and it was likely to be the biggest challenge facing their business in the future.

Over 100 business people who came to hear how the Chancellor’s Budget would affect them and their businesses attended Burgis & Bullock’s Budget seminar.

Commenting on this year’s budget, Peter Dubber, a Financial Services Partner for Burgis & Bullock said: “We would remind our clients that from April 2006 there will be a single set of rules for all registered pension schemes and this will have an affect on individual and business pension schemes.

“For example, where an individual has pension rights valued in excess of or approaching £1.5 million when the new rules are introduced, this value can be protected.

“So our advice would be that if you are a high earner or already have a valuable pension fund, it might be worth boosting contributions over the next year.