smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

More than half of companies will make redundancies in the next six months, suggests a survey from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

Adam Marshall, director of policy at the BCC, says: ‘Policies to help businesses retain jobs, and increase employment, will be critical over the next 12 months. Scrapping plans to raise National Insurance contributions in 2011 is an obvious place to start.’

Of the 450 companies surveyed, none plans to increase stock holdings, while 17 per cent will cut down on stock in the next three months.

According to the latest figures, unemployment now stands at 2.2 million.