Sunday 10 June 2012

MP shows the Wright way for the FSB




Shropshire Branch

MP shows the Wright way for the FSB

David Wright MP bought himself closer to the Telford business community, recently, by listening to and taking up causes from members of the Federation of Small Businesses at the recent Shropshire branch networking meeting.

On a warm night at Meeting Point house in Telford, David Wright MP answered questions from members on VAT, finance, the local council and future policies to see the country out of recession, there was also discussions on how the Shropshire business community can become more powerful, and approach the council in stronger ways.

David took on board a lot of the comments, offered his view on most and assisted in looking at ways forward.

Ray Hickinbottom, membership manager and event organiser for the branch said “we are a non-political lobbying group for small businesses, and David Wright MP very kindly offered his services to come and listen to how life is on the shop floor so to speak, indeed one of our members had a call from the MP in regards VAT, just as he was about to pose the query in the House of Commons. It is part of our series of events, our main aim is to bring the issues real people are experiencing, into sharp focus to the people that need to know, and our thanks go out to David for making the time to see us.”

The conversation was free flowing and everybody got to make their point at the meeting, it was local business owner of a logistics firm and FSB member, Ben Coates, that posed the VAT question, and he added “I recently spoke to the VAT office with regards setting up a monthly payment scheme, rather than new businesses having to find a huge lump sum every 3 months, however this was not available, when I mentioned it to Mr Wright he seemed to agree that the idea of enabling new businesses to budget this way, made sense, and of course it would help with Cash Flow.”



“I wrote to David as he asked me to, then I received a call three weeks later, with the question that was to be asked. The MP said he was about to table it and was outside the chancellor’s office as we spoke. Without the FSB I would feel isolated, so I have to thank my local branch for offering me the chance to move my idea forward.”

Ray added, “Since we met with David, he has invited us to take a group down to parliament for a tour, and has also booked a committee room so we are able to move discussions forward, we are not committed to any political party, our ties are firmly with the local business community who we represent.”

Up and coming FSB events include:

Monthly Networking meeting at Meeting Point house, 21st June, 19th July and the yearly social event, September 20th, venue to be arranged.

Please feel free to contact FSB Shropshire on the following:

Ray Hickinbottom – Membership Manager – 07733 603052
Ben Coates – Committee member – 07738 715038
Twitter: @fsbshropshire
Facebook Group: FSB Shropshire group