23rd December 2010, 04:08 PM
Milton Wrote:their main motive being the reliance on public funds as a cushion whilst invoices are chased
Now you have hit on an interesting point - when it comes to unfair advantages, never mind all the other points mentioned, one thing that is probably difficult to deny is the convenient situation some companies have - the backing of a larger organisation, council/charity/whatever to see them through periods of poor cash flow, which, as I'm sure many people out there know, is one of the major factors to lead to companies failing. I have been in a position where staff have had to be made redundant essentially because of cash flow, had there been a pot of council funding to fall back on that might not have happened. Indeed, looking at the accounts of some charity units (freely available on the Charity Commission website) you wonder how many times the 'mother' charity, perhaps receiving grants from elsewhere, is propping up the failing 'commercial' set up. I have certainly seen this happen in a smaller scale charity I was once involved in, although I'm not sure it's technically allowed according to charity rules.
Anyhoo, Merry Christmas etc!