A national survey of UK small businesses has shown that more than 90% of business owners will use their vote on Thursday.

With total turnout at the last General Election in 2010 of just over 65%, politicians of all parties are being warned to ignore the sector “at their peril”.

The survey of more than 52,000 business clients across the UK, conducted by small business specialists TaxAssist Accountants, also revealed that 66% of business owners did not think the pre-election debate addressed the issues which are important to small businesses.

More than 78% did not trust that politicians would follow through on the promises they made during the election campaign and nearly 62% said the quality of political debating had decreased in recent years.

Karl Sandall, Chief Executive of TaxAssist Accountants, said: “Small businesses who responded to our survey were decidedly unimpressed with the quality of the debate in the run-up to the election and the vast majority did not feel that any politicians were addressing the issues which mattered most to them.

“More than half (52%) said tax simplification was their top priority, closely followed by the economy (49%) and lowering the costs of doing business (45%), but said they were less than confident that promises made during the election campaign would be kept, with nearly 79% saying they wouldn’t be followed through and 14% saying they were not sure.

“The Institute of Fiscal Studies is right to say that none of the parties have provided anything like full details of their financial plans and whoever wins on Thursday has a long way to go to gain the trust of the small business sector. With small and medium sized firms in the UK employing over 15 million people, it is a voter base they neglect at their peril.”

TaxAssist Accountants asked more than 52,000 small business clients across the UK for their opinions on the pre-General Election debate.

TaxAssist Accountants is a national network providing tax and accountancy advice and services purely to small businesses.