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Small firms want regulation cuts
■ The government must extend the national insurance holiday for small firms, in order to fight unemployment, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) argued yesterday. The lobby group found that some 88 per cent of new private sector jobs taken by the previously unemployed, since the onset of recession, were created in small business. But the FSB warned that this may come to a halt without an extension of the national insurance contributions holiday. “In the current economic climate, with costs increasing and cash flow tight, small firms need all the help they can get,” said FSB boss John Walker.