According to a new survey many small businesses are positive ahead ahead of the spending review set to be announced by George Osborne this morning.

Research from the Forum of Private Business has found that many of the small businesses polled in a survey (40%) were ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ of their future, while 17% were ‘pessimistic’ or ‘very pessimistic’, blaming negativity within industry and the media for the increase in their negative outlook to the future.

42% of respondents also said that the coalition government’s handling of the economy was ‘good’, while 28% claimed it to be ‘fair’ and 7% rated it as excellent.

Phil Orford, chief executive of the Forum, said: “There will be pain as a result of the pending cuts – including for small businesses working in the public sector – but sometimes it’s true that the only thing to fear is fear itself. It is important to be positive and not just stoke the fires of pessimism. As some of our members are clearly aware, there will also be opportunities for private enterprise to step in to deliver excellent, efficient services and provide real value.”

He added: “But small businesses must be given the freedom and confidence to become the catalyst for private sector led recovery, and constraints on their growth should be removed.

“Measures supporting enterprise must be protected and improved. We also need a series of bold policies on tax, red tape, procurement and public sector payment as well as employment and training that embody the principles of ‘smaller, better, simpler’.”

Forum member Martin Chapman of Peter Osborne Fine Wines said the Government should listen to small businesses as well as large companies.

“The letter to the media signed by several big businesses supports the Government and says everything is rosy when in reality it’s not like that,” said Mr Chapman. “Big retailers have become fat in the system and they will be able to use their profits to get through the difficult times. Small business don’t have the reserves of large companies, they will have to either pass on increased costs to customers or dip into what little savings they have to avoid going under.”

He added: “When the cuts kick in we, as a provider of quality goods, will feel the pinch. We have to deal with declining demand whilst having to bear the increases in taxes, such as rises in duty and VAT.

“Successive governments have used this industry as a cash cow which they can plunder for additional revenue. This is short-termism by politicians who are simply thinking about the next election - they do not do enough to protect the small businesses which drive this country.”

The survey also found that almost one in five members reference the public sector cuts in the CSR, while 29% said that they believed that ‘internal business development’ would help their businesses grow, with 26% citing a stable economy as being necessary to grow their business.