The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is a UK business organisation representing

small and medium-sized businesses Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Ba ...

. It was formed in 1974 as the National Federation of Self Employed (NFSE). The current name for the organisation was adopted in 1991. It is registered with

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the company registrars of the United Kingdom, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are i ...

as The National Federation of Self Employed & Small Businesses Limited (company number 1263540). FSB is a member-led, not-for-profit and non-party political organisation. FSB is a lobbying organisation representing small firms and the self-employed to UK, national, local and devolved government. FSB offers its members a range of benefits, such as a 24-hour legal advice line and free business banking.

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 threshold

Membership

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.

References

External links

*
Annual Report 2020-21
{{Authority control Business organisations based in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1974