Will the new coalition government’s plans to introduce a “Single Programme” of support to help the unemployed and workless find, successfully compete for and sustain employment exclude the involvement of third sector organisations such as enterprise agencies?

Since my last post, we have had the emergency budget and lurid reports in the press on the size of the forthcoming autumn cuts to public services. I leave comments on the positive or negative impact of the budget on small businesses to others, but looking through the Treasury’s own figures and forecasts, one starts to grasp how significant this governments plans will be for the London Economy.

In light of the news that the government is planning to cut public expenditure even more than was initially forecast, it has been very worrying times for business support organisations that rely on public sector funding. Capital Enterprise is working very hard to keep its members in touch and well informed about government’s evolving plans.

Today is the day we find out how the £700m of cuts to the Department of BIS are going to effect business support providers and entrepreneurs in London. Already we are told to expect massive cuts in the funding to “Southern” RDA’s and the rumours are rife on how long the LDA will survive and whether programmes such as Business Link London will be re-commissioned. As soon as I know I will post the news on this blog.

Capital Enterprise is very happy to hear that Mark Prisk has been appointed Minster for Small Business at the Department of BIS. Whatever our political persuasion, we all found Mark to be in complete command of his brief when he spoke as Shadow Minister for Business to Capital Enterprise members and partners back in March. So it is a very welcomed development that we now have a minister in charge with the empathy, first hand experience and, most importantly, policies to support entrepreneurship in Britain.