Let’s just assume for the moment we were running a plc, call it GB Enterprises if you like. The southern patch of the sales area has been generating most of the business and innovation that funds the rest of the business. It has been doing that for some time and really shows no sign of discontinuing its value to the business as a whole. However, the other sales reps are getting a bit peeved because we have been investing in the south, but they sure as hell don’t mind benefitting from the income that the other bit delivers for them.

Now we have a new Managing Director and Board and they are scared of the regional sales teams so what they have decided to do is not just stop investing heavily in supporting the productive part of the business, they are positively going to discriminate against it making it more expensive and less encouraging to begin new projects and deliver new products.

Just to add a fly into the ointment, the shareholders now want a greater say in the decision making process, as those that provide the funding for the capital that drives the company forward, the problem is – the management really don’t want to let them have a vote on anything.

Sound at all familiar? What London School of Economics or Harvard Business School guru would use that as an example of good business management? But there again I am just a simple micro business owner, what do I know?

The South East England Federation of Small Businesses has expressed anger and disappointment that the Budget announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Osborne discriminates against potential new small businesses in the South East.

There is no doubt that National Insurance Contributions are a tax on jobs which hit small businesses particularly hard and the FSB has campaigned strongly against the proposed increase as it is clearly a tax on jobs.

That means the plans to exempt new firms from paying up to £5,000 a year in NIC for taking on up to 10 new staff is a move the FSB welcomes but where the plan goes wrong is by excluding businesses in the Greater South East from this scheme.

The Chancellor rightly claims that in those Regions, which include London, South East and East of England, many private sector jobs have been created in the last 10 years but that should not mean that we are now penalised because of that success.

This aspect of the Budget clearly discriminates against businesses in the South East and undermines the Chancellor’s claim that this is a ‘fair’ budget.

The FSB wishes to see this NIC exemption applied across the whole country and we urge the Chancellor to think again on the discriminatory nature of his current plans.

The FSB represents more than 213,000 business people across the United Kingdom with around 40,000 in the southeast, and is the largest single organisation representing business interests in the country. However, working together with colleagues from the other key employer organisations under the banner of the Southeast Business Forum (SEBUS), we are in direct dialogue with government, reinforcing the messages that are rapidly building a picture of deep discontent and concern. Time for the Managing Director and his Board to listen very carefully.