The government needs to do more to improve the export support scheme for smaller firms, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which has published a plan for this.

This claim has been made by the FSB following the decision to shut down the Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP), which was designed to help smaller firms with exporting issues. Although the FSB is arguing that this government programme did not live up to expectations, it did provide smaller companies with up to £2,500 that they could use to pay for promotional work, or charges for conferences and exhibiting their goods.

With the scrapping of the programme, the FSB is stating that a better alternative needs to be created, and it has published a plan consisting of five separate points to achieve this. The first point is to improve small business access to trade shows, especially in high-export regions like the West Midlands, North West and North East of England.

The second is to provide funding to cover charges for entering industry conferences, while the third is to ensure that grant funding is targeted to the right areas. Accountants in Goole and other regions can help smaller firms restructure their finances to find room for trade show and other export-related costs.

Point four is to trim administration to make it easier for small businesses to access it, while point five argues that the government should look at successful international export schemes to make UK exporting more cutting-edge and competitive.