John Wright is an unlikely candidate to be one of the chief tormentors of
Alistair Darling, but the Government has done his organisation few favours
this year.
His appointment in March as chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses
(FSB) coincided with the Government’s first body blow to enterprise. That
month Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, chose the spring Budget to raise
corporation tax for the UK’s smallest companies by 3 per cent over three
years.
Now Mr Wright, 63, is among those leading opposition to Mr Darling’s capital
gains tax (CGT) reform proposals.
Next week he will sit down with Stephen Timms, the small business minister, to
protest against the tax changes. The meeting comes after the FSB, which has
more than 210,000 direct members, sent an open letter to the Chancellor.
Co-signed by heads of the British Chambers of Commerce, the CBI and the
Institute of Directors, it describes reforms to the CGT regime that abolish
taper relief as a “bolt from the blue”. The changes effectively raise CGT
paid by small businesses on the sale of certain assets including shares in
their businesses from a minimum 10 per cent to a flat 18 per cent. Mr Wright
intends to tell Mr Timms that the increase could be the “straw that breaks
the camel’s back”, driving start-up companies out of the UK.
The letter is part of the FSB’s campaign to reverse the “catastrophic”
proposals announced throughout the year by Mr Darling and his predecessor.
The campaign includes a petition to No 10, and meetings with Treasury
officials are also planned.
A statement on the FSB website said that the increase in CGT is “totally
unacceptable, particularly from a Government that claims to be the champion
of small businesses and entrepreneurs”.
It is understood the Government told the small business lobby that it aimed to
nurture existing small businesses and encourage them to grow. The message
the FSB hopes to convey is that the Government is going about this the wrong
way. In addition to the changes to taper relief, small companies were hit by
proposals in the Pre-Budget Report that allow local authorities to levy a
supplementary business rate, as well as the abolition of the indexation
allowance that provided relief from inflation before the introduction of
taper relief.
Mr Wright, who was appointed to the chairmanship for three years after taking
over from Carol Undy, runs CATC, a training company.
He was a past chairman of Tees Valley Industrial Ministry from 1997 to 2003 —
an ecumenical all-faith industrial mission. He is a scuba diver who enjoys
hiking, canoeing and fly-fishing. His wife is Pam and he has a son and
daughter from a previous marriage.
