BT out to ring changes for home workers

BT WILL this week call on the Government to lift the barriers to starting a business at home as research shows a record 60% of start-ups are now run from the kitchen table or study.

The telecoms giant will throw its backing behind a 10-point plan to make life easier for home-based companies, which are said to benefit smaller communities and reduce pollution from commuting.

The list of demands, drawn up by online networking group Enterprise Nation, includes financial incentives for home working, clearer tax rules and a more positive approach from councils to planning applications for "live and work" schemes.

BT and Enterprise Nation's report, due out tomorrow, will show that home-based businesses account for 28% of UK jobs and have a combined turnover of £364bn.

An estimated 130,000 of these companies are based in Scotland.

Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, said: "Home businesses are helping to revitalise Scottish communities and local economies - and the "60-second commute" is good for the environment too.

"We must continue to exploit technological developments to help home-based working achieve its full potential.

"Nations and regions which support dedicated home business projects are growing this base at the fastest rate."

The report will be launched at London's BT Tower tomorrow to kick off Small Business Week, a programme of events sponsored by BT, the British Chambers of Commerce, Royal Bank of Scotland and the UK government.

Stephen Timms, minister of state at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, will speak at the event, which will also see the release of an independent report on the "State of the Small Business Nation".

BT and Enterprise Nation will push for agencies such as Scottish Enterprise to give more support to home businesses, and to make it easier for companies that contract out work to get development grants.

Their report will also call for more accurate statistics on home working, and a cross-departmental government group to monitor and encourage the growing phenomenon.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation and author of the report, said: "Every week, more than 1,400 businesses are started from a home base, yet we believe there is potential to increase this still further, with some dedicated support from government and enterprise agencies. Home business owners are ambitious for business growth and they are making full use of technology to partner with others and trade online."

Seven out of 10 home workers chose to work from their place of residence because it created a better balance between work and leisure, while half said that home working reduced their overheads.

The proposed changes were supported by Deborah Watson, who runs Scottish Linen, a fabric company, from her home in the western Highlands. She said working from home gave her business stability and allowed her to allocate time to household chores.

A report last week suggested that a significant proportion of home businesses are run by people aged over 50. These so-called "senior start-ups" account for one in six fledgling companies and contribute £24.4bn to the UK economy, according to the study by Kingston University's Small Business Research Centre.

Older entrepreneurs tended to work alone from home, and 10% turned over more than £67,500 per year. Most regretted not having set up on their own earlier in life, had no intention of retiring and saw their business as a way of funding their pensions. Most planned to work for as long as they were able to.