By ASKAR SHEIBANI,

CEO, Comtek Network Systems UK Ltd and chair DBF

According to the International Monetary Fund, despite the optimism for global growth, the UK is the only advanced economy which will be in a recession.

The UK economy is expected to contract by 0.6% more than the Russian economy, which is expected to contract by 0.3%. The big question: why is the UK's performance expected to be so poor?

Several factors have driven the UK's performance towards such a negative outlook.

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The political system in the UK is outdated and is no longer fit for purpose. Our political parties are more interested in winning elections at any cost, including by promising undeliverable populistic policies. They promise a great economy, a fantastic National Health Service, and brilliant infrastructure, such as the latest rail network, all of which they know well, will be challenging to deliver.

We all witnessed the promises of great opportunities and an amazing economic future by some of our politicians during the Brexit campaign and we got just the opposite.

We need a more modern political system similar to the German PR system, in which all political parties can work with each other and have long-term economic plans.

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Historically, the UK's economy has been rescued from downturns and recessions by small businesses. Unfortunately, most UK governments have concentrated their efforts on supporting big businesses and ignoring the SME sector.

We are now seeing more and more great small businesses collapsing. A good example is DRB in Deeside, which went into bankruptcy last week, making more than 100 highly skilled loyal local employees redundant. This company was a half-a-century old, and a great community-based engineering company.

In countries such as Germany and France, these types of engineering companies are valued and supported by their governments.

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When high-quality engineering and manufacturing businesses go, they go forever. Small businesses have gone through tough times during the pandemic and to survive, they had to borrow. Unfortunately, the high level of interest rates and higher cost of employment, energy and raw materials is killing them.

They were also encouraged by the government to delay their PAYE and VAT taxes to help them to survive. Now HMRC are issuing winding-up orders to bankrupt these small businesses. None of this makes sense.

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The energy companies are taking the most ruthless action by applying for court warrants to cut off the supplies to small businesses that are struggling, hence bankrupting them. These energy companies now enjoying unprecedented levels of profit which they have never seen before.

Small businesses have suffered a significant drop in trade from the EU and are facing massive bureaucracy when they do trade with the EU.

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Small businesses also need to put up with huge business rates (council taxes) even if they are losing money. This draconian outdated tax regime is destroying our town centres and many small businesses.

The UK didn't need to be in this economic situation. This is an advanced economy which was respected all over the world for its successes.

It is not too late to inject some common sense into government policies. Policy makers need to listen to the voice of our great grassroots community-based businesses.

The government needs to change course and start working with and supporting the SME sector before it's too late and our communities are turned into ghost towns.