Small Business Split On Early General Election

UK small businesses are split on whether or not Gordon Brown should call a general election now or wait until next year. Results of a poll conducted by the Orange Business Jury show that 40% want an election now, while 39% think it should be next year.
  • 64% of small businesses confident the financial condition of their business will improve or stay the same
  • Worryingly 65% said they expected that small business issues would not be given priority in an election

UK small businesses are split on whether or not Gordon Brown should call a general election now or wait until next year. Results of a poll conducted by the Orange Business Jury show that 40% want an election now, while 39% think it should be next year.

When asked whether or not small business issues would be considered in a general election, the message back was loud and clear, with two thirds (65%) concerned they would not be taken into account.

Many small business owners on the Jury would also like to see a change to the voting options available to them, with 43 per cent admitting they would prefer to vote either online or by SMS, compared to just over a third (36%) who want to vote in person at the polling booth.

The Orange Business Jury, conducted by Ipsos, polled 433 decision makers in Britain's small businesses to gauge their opinions on the possibility of a snap general election. The results of the poll show that:

  • On the state of economy, nearly two thirds (64%) expect the financial condition of their company to improve or stay the same over the next twelve months. Less than a quarter (24%) think the financial condition will get worse.
  • A quarter of small businesses think that issues affecting them will be taken into consideration at the next election (25%). Worryingly 65% said they expected that their issues would not be given priority.

Technical details

The Orange Business Jury is a panel of over 1000 small business owners, managers and decision makers working for companies with up to 250 employees. The panel is run by Ipsos. The survey is conducted using The 3rd Degree software tool, via SMS, and allows a fast response to issues as and when they affect the small business community. The study was conducted between 3pm and 4.30pm on September 28th 2007. The response rate was between 40% and 45% for the questions asked.

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