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		Small Businesses under attack from all sides Boston Standard - April 22 2002 When travelling around the East Midlands the biggest and most common concerns I encounter come from small businesses, about the excessive amounts of red tape and extra cost being introduced by the EU and the Labour Government. There is obviously a need for some sensible regulation but there must be better Business Impact Assessment (BIA). BIA, or Regulatory Impact Assessment as it is sometimes known, is used to work out the likely effect of legislative proposals on businesses, and in particular on small and medium sized enterprises. It balances the good outcomes from a regulation against the bad and assesses whether it is a good piece of regulation to introduce or not. BIA should be a vital part of the legislative process as it reduces the amount of unnecessary red tape and cost. At the recent EU Summit in Barcelona, the Commission proudly launched its final report on a new BIA "pilot project". Talk about one step behind the times. The EU has been regulating for over twenty years but has only just come up with the idea of looking into the effects of regulation. No wonder businesses in the East Midlands are so fed up. Even Mexico and Korea have better BIA than Europe. The EU seems to prefer the policy: "Benefits assumed. Costs ignored". Small businesses are not only suffering under Brussels but also under the Government. In last week's budget Gordon Brown announced an increase in the National Insurance rate. The rise comes on top of numerous other tax increases introduced by New Labour since they came into power and is a damaging blow to small businesses. In an email survey two thirds of Forum of Private Business (FPB) members say they are opposed to the increase in National Insurance and that it is not a good budget for business. FPB calculates that a firm employing 10 people will face an increased NI bill of £2,361 per annum. A company employing 100 would face additional costs of £23,607, which is the cost of at least one full time job. Small businesses are under attack from Brussels and New Labour. It's about time something changed and introducing better BIA would be a jolly good start.