Structure
The current National Chair of FSB is Martin McTague who was appointed on 8 March 2022 In 2017 FSB had 184 branches around the UK and these were grouped into 33 regions. Each branch and region has its own committee. In addition, there is a national committee which includes representatives from each regional committee. In January 2018, FSB's Board of Directors altered the organisation's volunteer structure by switching from elected Branches and Regions to an unelected, ad-hoc approach to local lobbying and representation. This necessitated changes to FSB's National Council which consists of up to 12 appointed representatives.Lobbying
FSB's past political lobbying activities have led in its own opinion to a number of benefits for small businesses, such as: * The introduction of, and periodic increases to, an Employment Allowance for small business employers * Fast introduction and expansion of a range of government support for small businesses and the self-employed affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (‘furlough’); the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS); business rates relief and various grants. * The reduction or removal of Corporation Tax for small limited companies * Creation of small business rates relief * Preventing the wholesale expansion of VAT to smaller businesses under the current thresholdMembership
FSB is a member-led federation. Membership criteria are as follows: * Self-Employed or the owner, partner, or director of a business (or businesses) Based in the United Kingdom * Fewer than 250 employees. * Agree to the Members' Code of Conduct * Not barred from membership The membership was 185,000 in 2006 and >160,000 in 2016. The membership is 200,000+ if Joint, Associate, Retired, Connect and Business Creation (pre-start-up) affiliates are included.Small Business Index
The FSB Small Business Index measures confidence among small firms. The FSB SBI has been quoted by the Bank of England, the BBC, Economia, and EADT.Current logo
The current logo for the organisation was adopted in November 2015. The costs of this re-branding was £0.3M and took well over a year to complete including a complete re-branding of the FSB Website.See also
* British Chambers of Commerce *References
External links
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