News Article - 12 March 2009
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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to boost their business growth may find that they benefit from a pick-up in the UK housing market, according to one sector commentator.

Danny Cox, a chartered financial planner from Hargreaves Lansdown, said this was because once the property market began to improve it would be a signal that the health of the economy was returning.

In answer to the question of how long it would take for attempts to stimulate the economy to filter down to SMEs, he said: "It's very difficult to say, because so many small businesses in the UK are tied or linked to the housing market and the supply chain around that."

According to the latest Business Inflation Guide - produced by More Than Business and Warwick Business School - deflation began to hit small businesses at the end of 2008.

Costs fell by an average of 2.9 per cent across the UK in the final quarter of the year, driven mainly by cheaper prices for fuel (-18.3 per cent) and raw materials (-11.95 per cent).

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