Business support can have a "huge impact" on small and medium enterprises, says one industry expert.

StartupCo, which helps support people thinking of starting a business, claimed that support of businesses from local government can make "a huge difference" on an individual level, because it can mean the difference between a "business failing or surviving, and surviving or growing".

However, John de Groot, director of StartupCo, explained that there was more to the survival of a business than the amount of support it receives from local government and other organisations.

"If you're looking at businesses that are going to start and survive in the longer term and not fail in the first three years then it comes down more to the individual that is starting the business," he said.

"It's the individual that makes the difference, not how much external support that they might get."

The Scotsman newspaper reports that 120,000 small businesses will pay no rates next year, while a further 30,000 will benefit from reductions of between 25 and 50 per cent.

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