News in brief

SMEs confident in recession

New research from Hiscox reveals that the majority of the UK’s SMEs remain positive about their prospects in the current recession.

Almost half (48%) have not needed to take additional measures to ride out the downturn, while 54% said they were confident that they will survive the turbulent financial times.

Of the businesses that have been forced to take action, most have avoided more drastic measures, such as redundancies, salary cuts or reducing spend on office maintenance.

Alan Thomas, small business insurance expert at Hiscox, says: “SMEs are an integral part of the UK’s business landscape and an important indicator of the health of the economy, so it’s good to see that many are confident about their survival prospects.”