FSB | Local Government Hub | Federation of Small Businesses

The voice of small businesses

Working for small businesses

We’re working to deliver on crucial issues such as levelling up, skills gaps, net zero, and the ever-changing business landscape.

Working with local councils

We work closely with local councils across the UK to deliver direct support to small businesses, and ensure they are represented locally.

Speaking up for small businesses

We’re making sure small businesses are heard effectively, in local government, on local issues.

With the extensive reach and potential impact of local and regional government stakeholders on small business issues, we’re making sure small businesses are heard effectively.

Working across the UK

Choose a link below to find out more about FSB activity in the UK’s devolved nations, or to get in touch with one of the teams.

Scotland | Northern Ireland | Wales

Looking for UK-wide activity? Check our lobbying page.

FSB’s key asks for local governments in England

As a key partners to local authorities, FSB has identified the following priority asks to strengthen links with councils across England:

Engagement with the small businesses and the self-employed – appoint a dedicated Small Business Champion and ensure that local authority representatives meet with small businesses, the self-employed and business groups regularly and at a time convenient to them.
Net Zero – local authorities should set out a net zero engagement plan and should act as a point of contract for signposting businesses to better understand their role and the actions they can take in supporting net zero aims and ambitions.
Employment and skills – Ensure that the needs of small businesses and the self-employed are well understood by actively engaging them in discussions and providing opportunities for educators and businesses to work together to address local challenges.
Public Sector Procurement – raise awareness of public sector procurement contracts and encourage small businesses and the self-employed to submit tenders, ensuring that the application process is clear, simple and easy to follow with feedback provided on unsuccessful applications.
Business Rates – Keep lists and data current, including properties which qualify for Small Business Rates Relief, and support eligible businesses in their applications for relief.
Prompt payment – Ensure information is regularly updated on payment practices in relation to small businesses and self-employed suppliers. 30-days payment terms are the maximum for local authorities, paying on time is critical for small businesses

Our local leadership report outlines these key asks in further detail.

Download the full report

Our work with Local Government

From local leadership to engaging events, find out how we’re supporting small businesses in England by working with local authorities. Discover some of the exciting projects and events that we have been working on to support our members and the wider small business community.

Producing high level evidence-based reports

FSB in the North East

Businesses in the North of England account for nearly 20 per cent of the UK’s overall private sector economy, contributing almost 17 per cent of the UK’s annual private sector turnover. With SME’s and sole traders accounting for 99 per cent of this business community, creating jobs and opportunity across the North, it is crucial to ensure their voice and their needs are at the heart of local decision-making and delivery.

Over a period of 11 weeks, FSB held in-depth roundtables and surveyed businesses across the north, creating a robust evidence base for our recommendations. Through our extensive lobbying, providing the collective voice of small businesses in the north using the report compiled on this research, we have successfully secured support in many areas across the region. Thus far, measures to include affordable travel, commitments to deliver more accessible office space, business support programmes targeted at creative and culture sectors, start up businesses, entrepreneurial training, procurement support, and much more. We will continue to voice the needs of small business by means of this and subsequent reports to build the thriving and vibrant entrepreneurial north that we want to see.

Lobbying a range of stakeholders to push for small businesses

FSB in Essex

A Co-Op of small businesses from an Essex industrial estate, spearheaded by an FSB member, reached out to FSB for help after months of failed negotiation on a 165% increase in ground rents and immediate back-dated payments.

FSB wrote to the contractor, appointed by the local council, to highlight the impact this would have on the 90 or so small business owners and the detrimental effect this could have on the local economy.

A reduction in the original ground rents demand was agreed at 85%, which most businesses agreed to, and payment plans were put in place for any back-dated payments.

The small businesses are incredibly grateful to FSB for their support. They believe that many jobs have been saved and a great deal of stress has been reduced.

Facilitating communication between Local Authorities and the small business community

FSB in Hampshire, Dorset and Isle of Wight

Leading Hampshire’s activity for FSB my role is to facilitate communication between Local Authorities and the small business community on important local issues such as infrastructure projects and planned developments. Working towards the best results possible within the parameters for small businesses I’m able to feed in best practice examples from around the UK and broker discussion to enable a constructive exchange of views.

A recent example of this was the work we did on behalf of the business community in North Camp, Farnborough whose trade was severely disrupted by a 72 week cycle lane infrastructure scheme.

FSB became involved 9 months into the project, when communication between the leading Local Authority, and the businesses had deteriorated. There had been a lack of clarity about the completion dates for the project and the business community felt anger and distrust directed at the LA leading the project.

Our intervention enabled constructive dialogue to happen to share the views and concerns which we had collected on behalf of the businesses, to present their business case and hold the Local Authority accountable to project timescales. As part of this process, we were able to negotiate on behalf of the businesses for better communication and measures to lessen the impact of the works until the completion of the project and beyond, with initiatives to rebuild lost footfall.