In his first statement since taking up the position of chair, McTague calls on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to move away from the ‘eye-wateringly expensive’ super deduction tax break which ‘will primarily be used by corporations and multinationals and not small businesses’.

In a letter to the Chancellor, the FSB set out several policy recommendations for Sunak to consider including in his Spring Statement on 23 March to help offset greater pressure on small businesses’ finances from a 1.25% national insurance and dividend tax hike.

Instead of the super deduction tax break, he calls for Sunak to prioritise the reduction of government-imposed overheads to free up funds for investment at the local level as FSB research showed just 4% of the small businesses that make up 99% of the private sector see the super deduction as one of the top three incentives to invest.