Expenditure made by small businesses in IT is expected to bottom out during 2009, a trade association has stated.

Intellect found that overall spending on IT will fall by a further 1.8 per cent this year, though this will rebound and rise by 0.5 per cent during 2010.

John Higgins, director-general of Intellect, remains quietly confident.

He said: "The UK technology sector can be the cornerstone of economic recovery going into 2010 but there is a danger the hotter areas, which have a major impact on the wider economy, are at risk of being constrained unless a fit-for-purpose digital infrastructure is brought forward."

Mr Higgins added that next-generation broadband may be the catalyst for major reinvigoration in the industry, creating new business models for such things as IT support and creating more jobs in the future.

Another problem is also developing in the industry at present, with Fortinet's recent Threatscape Report for April detailing how malware volumes hit their highest level for 2009 during the month, posing serious threats to small businesses in IT which do not use data security programs.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.