My comments recently on proposed new EU law abolishing the obligation for businesses under 1 million euro turnover to file accounts at Companies House has sparked a bit of a debate.
With the Companies Act 2006 abolishing the need for company directors to make available to the public at Companies Registry their home addresses, and the possible disappearance of accounts on micro businesses (numbering hundreds of thousands by the way),things are looking distinctly unfavourable for credit checkers, lenders, and credit insurers etc.The phrase "stabbing in the dark" comes to mind when looking ahead to assessing creditworhiness of small businesses in the future.

To compensate, I want to float one idea that might at least help organisations credit check in the future;Small businesses should register their trading names at Companies House. for example, G and F Simpson Ltd, running a shop operating as "Toddlers Toys and Prams" should by law register that fact at the offical registry. Those old enough to remember the Business Names registry (abolished soon after Maggie Thatcher came to power in 1979) regret its passing, so my idea of linking Ltd company names with their operating trading names at an official registry may be extremely useful, and will cost small businesses nothing. What say you BERR?