Struggling small firms dismayed over call to cut prices A campaign by David Buttress, the Government's new cost of living tsar, asking businesses to cut prices to help with living costs has been branded a "slap in the face" for small firms. The Federation of Small Businesses said asking struggling companies to "soak up additional costs just isn't realistic". Martin McTague, national chair of the FSB, said most small firms were "well beyond the point of being able to absorb extra costs without passing them on, which is often a last resort". "It's a slap in the face for government to spend the extra tax it is raising from businesses on state-run marketing campaigns - doubtless focused on big businesses with corporate offers that can now be rebranded as helping the cost of living crisis, and so boost their sales," he told the BBC.