ABSTRACT
Since the publication in 1971 of the report of the Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms, better known as the Bolton Report (HMSO 1971), successive governments in the United Kingdom have introduced a wide variety of measures designed to promote new firm formation and small firm growth (Beesley and Wilson 1982). Both the Conservative Government of the day and the subsequent Labour administration acted upon a number of the Committee’s recommendations in order to remove sources of unintended discrimination against small firms and to create a climate favourable to their growth. The momentum increased towards the end of the Labour administration with the appointment of a special study under Lord Lever, a senior Minister in the Government, to investigate the problems of small firms and to recommend and initiate remedial action. This led to the incorporation of a number of fiscal measures to assist small firms in the budgets of 1977 and 1978. In addition, the Labour Government appointed a committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Harold Wilson to inquire into the role of the financial institutions and the provision of funds for industry and trade; its interim report on the financing of smaller firms was published in 1979 (HMSO 1979) and a number of its recommendations have subsequently been acted upon.
