The Chancellor has failed to deliver a Budget which will help the growth of small and medium sized businesses in the north, according to a survey of firms.

Accountants Pannell Kerr Forster, which has offices in Leeds, asked 55 small and medium-sized businesses if this year's Budget had created an environment which would help them expand.

The results showed just over half (51 per cent) said no, and more than two thirds (69 per cent) said the tax regime had got no simpler since the Government came to power.

The main barriers for respondents to the growth of their businesses were red tape (42 per cent) followed by inability to recruit top quality people (24 per cent), strength of the pound (13 per cent) and lack of funding (six per cent).

Pannell Kerr Forster director of tax Mike Crawley said: "When the Chancellor delivered his Budget speech, his rhetoric indicated he had produced a Budget for business and enterprise.

"When more details were given in the Government press releases, it became apparent that there were several very nasty stings in the tail.

"In particular his apparent reluctance to address the question of National Insurance on share options has left many entrepreneurial businesses facing enormous liabilities which they will find difficult to fund."

Eighteen per cent of respondents also listed interest rates as a barrier to growth, and two per cent mentioned competition from abroad. Asked if the Budget had gone any way to alleviating these barriers, a staggering 89 per cent said no.

Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) said that their business did not have an employee share scheme. Asked if, in the light of the Budget, their company was now likely to introduce one, nearly two thirds (62 per cent) said no.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.