The  Delegates  at the London Funding Conference will:

• Hear from the banks, the VCs and angels what they are looking for
• Hear from lawyers about the pitfalls to avoid
• Hear from Capital Enterprise (i.e., me) about publicly funded support available for potential high growth businesses in London.
• Meet the key players
• Meet other fast growing businesses also raising finance

This event is designed to help existing fast-growing businesses understand what is required to attract loan or equity investment to finance their further growth. It will also provide the opportunity for delegates to meet a number of the key players and other high growth businesses.

The conference will feature short presentations and Q&A sessions with the following key speakers:

The presentations will be followed by meeting and networking with the speakers over wine and nibbles.

Where and when?

The Terrace Room, The British Library Business, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, Tuesday 7^th September 2010, 6 pm to 8.45 pm.

Register at www.amiando.com/funding

There is a small £25 attendance fee, but if readers of this blog send me an e-mail (john@capitalenterprise.org), I will issue you with a discount code that will give 60% off the price of entrance.

The aim of this informal and very interactive event is to give an opportunity for ambitious entrepreneurs who are looking to raise money to:

• Get the facts and “insider track” on raising significant amounts of money (sums of £50K-£2m) from London’s leading bankers, asset financiers, business angels and early stage VC’s.
• Get an opportunity to meet and informally discuss their funding raising plans with some of London’s leading funders of early stage and growth businesses. If there is money out there to fund ambitious entrepreneurs then the guys in this room will either have it or know where to find it.
• Find out about the range of support programmes offered by Capital Enterprise members that will help a London business to develop a business plans, access finance, innovate, market overseas and generally expand.
• Meet other entrepreneurs in the same boat  and share contacts, tips and knowledge.

In essence, we are trying to say to businesses in London that if you want to grow then you should go to the Capital Enterprise and Keystone Law sponsored London Funding Mini-Conference 2010.

Delegates who register will:

• Hear from the banks, the VCs and Angels and find out what they are looking for?
• Hear from lawyers and specialist consultants about the funding process
• Hear from Capital Enterprise on the latest government funded initiatives to support ambitious high growth businesses (including news on innovation grants and university co-finance offers)
• Meet the key players in Early and Growth stage funding
• Meet other “high flying” entrepreneurs also looking to raise finance

The conference will feature short presentations from:

• Huw Morga, Head of Business Banking, HSBC (tbc)
• Amadeus Capital, Growth Stage VC (tbc)
• Paul Grant, Angel Funding expert
• John Spindler, Capital Enterprise
• Simon Littlewood (TBC) and Grant Thornton on the Mayor of London funded “Gateway To Investment” programme
• Keystone Law

We also hope to be able to announce in the weeks leading up to the mini conference, that attending the event will be a host of senior representatives from the  leading funders of early stage funding of ambitious growth companies in London.

Finally, Capital Enterprise is sponsoring the event as a means to explore the possibility of setting up a club or network exclusively for ambitious, growth focused, businesses in London that would be supported (with for example the provision of  insider information and unique exclusive offers) by Capital Enterprise members such as the British Library, universities and Capital Enterprise partners such as the leading accountants, lawyers and banks, etc. Would entrepreneurs be interested? Hopefully, we will get a good turnout and I will get an opportunity to gauge opinion.

If you know anyone who would be interested in attending the mini-conference, then please get them to book their place on the conference by registering at www.amiando.com/funding

Jobs @ GLE One London

Business Adviser, Brixton

GLE oneLondon is looking for an experienced Business Adviser to join our growing Enterprise Support team, and play a key role in driving forward our Innovation in Business project.

As a SFEDI accredited member of the IBC, you must have a proven track record of working across a range of businesses. Based in our local delivery offices at Brixton, you will be self-motivated, a good and confident communicator, and enjoy working in a team.

You are required to demonstrate excellent business advice and project management, writing and presentation skills and a good understanding of the innovation agenda. Consultancy experience is an advantage.

A good understanding of the opportunities and barriers facing businesses aiming to improve and grow is expected. Knowledge of new technologies would be an advantage.

Outreach Worker, Brixton

Are you outgoing, positive, professional, committed, enthusiastic, flexible and can show initiative? Have some knowledge and experience of how businesses work? Willing to be out in the community? Have excellent communication, organisation and strong interaction skills? Can you build unique relationships and be able to work on your own and within a team?

GLE oneLondon are looking for an Outreach Worker to promote their business support programmes and events to existing and start-up businesses. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Outreach Worker to join our growing Enterprise Support team.

Applicants must also have at least six months experience to be eligible for this role and also be able to demonstrate their experience in outreach work.

Events Coordinator, Brixton

GLE oneLondon are looking for an Events Coordinator to deliver their business events programme working on both internal and external projects. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Events Coordinator to join our growing Enterprise Support team, and lead on events from their inception to completion.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to use their own creative skills to deliver exciting and innovative events. If you are looking for a challenging and interesting events role then please apply.

The Events Coordinator should have a love for special event management, provide outstanding customer service, be an enthusiastic professional, and be able to build relationships with internal and external clients.

For more information please visit www.gle.co.uk/vacancies.php

GLE is an equal opportunities employer and actively encourages applications from all sections of the community. Disabled people who meet the essential criteria for the post will be invited to interview.

Deadline for applications: Friday 30th July 2010

Interviews: w/c 2nd August 2010

Jobs @ Central St Martins/ London Artscom Ltd.

Senior Business Manager

London Artscom Ltd/Central Saint Martins
University of the Arts London
£60,000 plus significant profit related bonus
 
University of the Arts London is a vibrant world centre for innovation, drawing together six Colleges with international reputations in art, design, fashion, communication and performing arts. London Artscom is the commercial arm of the University.
 
This is an exceptional opportunity to manage one of the world’s largest portfolios of art and design short courses, while generating significant profits to support art and design education at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design (CSM).
 
It will be your responsibility to develop the CSM Artscom strategy and range of products, delivering profit from commercial activities, while maintaining the existing business. This will include building on the existing programme of term-time, holiday and online short courses and associated accommodation service, bespoke training for individuals, companies and overseas universities, study abroad for US and other international students, short term consultancy projects and art and design sales and commissions.
 
To succeed, you will need to be a commercially-focused, entrepreneurial individual. Motivated by generating profit for the organisation, you will have the ability to manage a broad and very detailed business with a high transaction load. An excellent team leader, you will bring the ability to manage and motivate teams and networks of academic, technical and other colleagues, as well as outside partners. The management skills required are both people and data-focused, so you will need to be financially fluent with the ability to influence and negotiate at all levels. High levels of customer service combined with an attitude that promotes continual service improvement are essential.
 
As this role manages the College’s very large portfolio of short courses, attended by 11,500 students per year, an interest in, understanding and professional experience of art and design are essential. You will also become part of the team of Artscom Business Managers and of CSM’s Enterprise & Innovation department.
 
In return, we offer a competitive employment package including a salary that reflects working in London; a profit related bonus scheme; generous annual leave; a final salary pension scheme; and a commitment to your continuing personal and career development in an environment that encourages creativity, diversity and excellence. Relocation assistance is available.
 
Closing date: 9 August 2010
 
Please visit http://jobs.arts.ac.uk to download an application pack or alternatively please contact Alex Scott on 020 7514 2066 or via email at a.scott@arts.ac.uk
. 

On-line Short Course Manager

• Central Saint Martins London Artscom Ltd
• 2 days per week from now until February 2011
• Approximately £200 per day

REPORTS TO: CSM Artscom Senior Business Manager (until 10 September 2010), Director of Enterprise & Innovation thereafter.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

• To develop and implement the strategy for on-line short courses at Central Saint Martins with a view to launching new products aimed at a global audience in January 2011.
• To work with a supplier in developing a successful and innovative on-line platform upon which short courses can be hosted and delivered. To manage the development costs and ensure deadlines are met.
• To ensure that the most popular and profitable existing short courses are re-created on-line to maximise income.

PERSON SPEC:

• An understanding of how training can be delivered in a VLE as well as within the traditional classroom context.
• A broad understanding of the disciplines within art, design and performance, and an innovative approach to training that can result in unique course development.
• Ability to see a project from idea through to implementation.
• Ability to work on own and to meet own deadlines.
• Budget management and negotiation.

ENQUIRIES:
Steve Whalley, CSM Artscom
Email: s.m.whalley@csm.arts.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7514 7256

Jobs @ Merton Chamber of Commerce

Business Adviser

ERDF Project and Related Projects   

£30,000 per annum pro rata for hours worked only

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE JOB: 

1. To provide high quality business support services for an ERDF project and related projects.
2. Produce timely reports and documentation in accordance with ERDF and other projects and commercial work.
3. Promote the services of Merton Chamber to external clients.
4. Deliver the outputs relating to the projects.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE JOB HOLDER: 

1. Provide general or specialist business support, assisting clients to prepare for funding applications
2. Work within the guidelines of ERDF funded projects.
3. Complete all required documentation to the required standard to meet project outputs.
4. Maximise on project outputs.
5. Provide a professional service for clients and measure impact 
6. Deliver/assist with co-ordination of occasional Finance related workshops, promoting ERDF benefits and advising on sources of finance and related business factors to businesses and employers.
7. Collect feedback from clients for evaluation purposes and LMI.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential

1. To have a relevant professional qualification.
2. To have expert knowledge of the business environment.
3. Experience of working with businesses as a business adviser and scoping business needs.
4. Track record of successful business improvement with clients.

Enquiries/CVs to :

Mr D Swift, Merton Chamber of Commerce
Tuition House 27 – 37 St George’s Road
Wimbledon SW19 4EU
Email: david@southlondon.biz
Tel: 020 8947 0055

Before the election, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) was spending an estimated £450m per annum on up to 36 programmes in London (excluding those funded by councils and European funds) that aimed to help various segments of the workless (single parents, disabled, long term unemployed, etc.) return to work. The new government has decided to roll all this programmes into one and from April or June 2011 to have a single programme for the unemployed in London which will be contracted out for delivery to a single private sector contractor who may or may not be in coalition to share the delivery with other private and third sector organisations.

Last Tuesday the DWP fired the starting gun by issuing an Invitation to Tender Notice requesting all organisations interested in becoming a contractor on the programme to complete a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire that will determine whether they have the means and capacity to become a deliverer of the Single Programme in one of the nine English regions. (I’ve posted the DWP’s tender invitation as a Word document.)

Assessing the cashflow risks

This seemingly sensible decision to roll up all existing contracts into one has some serious implications for third sector delivery. More specifically, these issues are:

1. Size of the contracts: The size of the four year contract to deliver the Single Programme in London is likely to be over a billion pounds whilst the minimum size of contracts for recognised sub-partners within a bidding coalition are likely to be in the region of £40-200m. To be considered by the DWP as a prime or secondary delivery agent for these contracts your organisation will need to provide a covenant or bank guarantee equivalent in value to the contract and, as a rule of thumb, have a turnover four times the size of the value of the DWP contract. This will exclude all but a handful of companies in the country from bidding to be the prime contractor and mean that even Capital Enterprise’s largest members will struggle to pass Pre-qualification Questionnaires. Expect a lot of merger and acquisition activity in the employment support provider market as organisations struggle to meet the size thresholds.
2. Payment on results: It is likely that at least 60% of the contract value will be paid by the DWP only when the person that has been helped into work has been in continuous employment for 52 weeks. The DWP is not only making these contracts much more risky, but also massively more demanding of the cashflow requirements of any provider brave or foolish enough to get involved. On some estimates an organisation will need sufficient cashflow reserves to cover about 18-24 months of contract delivery (depending on if all goes well and they achieve there 52 week targets). No charity or social enterprise will be able to cashflow these contracts or accept this level of risk to carry out what is in the end a contract to carry out government policy. Some Third Sector organisations hope that the likely big private sector prime contractors such as Serco or Capita will fund from their own resources, the cashflow risk but the question remains why should they, and if they did, at what cost to the third sector sub-contractor. Personally, the only option I see is for third sector organisations to form Special Purpose Vehicles for the purpose of bidding for these DWP contracts and that the covenants and guarantees for these contracts are provided or under-written by local or regional government.

If others concur, then we may reach a bizarre situation where you require local or regional government to financially support third sector involvement in the new coalition government’s so called “Big Society” approach to helping unemployed people back to work. Given the financial constraints on local or regional government, I can’t see it happening.

Focus for our members

You may therefore ask what this all has to do with Capital Enterprise members? Well, the answer is that the flagship “Working for Yourself” programme, that this government has promised to introduce to help the unemployed go self-employed, is likely to be incorporated into the “Single Programme” and therefore contracted on the same way and on same “payment on results” terms. If this is so, will local enterprise agencies, charities such as The Prince’s Trust be involved?

Personally, I was surprised to discover that public sector spending in London this financial year will be almost £78 billion – making London the largest regional recipient of public spending in England. When public spending is calculated by population, it turns out that the government will be spending in 2009/10 £10,139 on every man, women and child that lives in this great city. This is by far the highest amount per head in the country – 18% more than average in England. Consequently, if the government goes ahead with the proposed 25% cuts in public spending then this would mean taking £19.456 billion out of the London Economy or £2,535 from every London resident. This is no small beer.

How London spends

If like me, you would be surprised by how much public spending goes on in London. However, when the Treasury figures are broken it down it is easy to see why. Apparently, with 14.8% of England’s population spends, London spends:

• 30% of the UK’s Housing and Community Budget
• 29% of the UK’s Transport Budget
• 25% of the UK’s Public Order & Safety Budget
• 23% of the UK’s Science & Technology Budget
• 19% of the UK’s Culture & Sports Budget
• 18% of the UK’s Education budget- The largest of any English Region
• 17% of the UK’s Health Budget.

Is there anything that London does not get more than its fair share of public funding? Well, yes. Enterprise and Economic Development spending at 12.7% of national spending is a little below the national average.

When looking at the expenditure, especially on departments such as Transport (all those commuter trains bringing in people from the greater South East) and Public Order (all those policemen on diplomatic protection duties) and Culture (all the national and international Museums and Theatres in London), it is not surprising that London gets more than its fair share of spending. After all London is the Capital City.

How London pays back

Interestingly, the London Economy contributes at £265 million, 21% of the national UK GDP — thereby paying in much more than it presently receives back. But will this argument cut much ice with the rest of the UK’s population or will the argument that based on allocation per head London gets too much of the Housing, Police, Transport and Education budget than it deserves win out and therefore justifying cutting spending in London back to the same level or spending per head as the rest of the UK?

The other big difference between London and the rest of the UK when it comes to public spending, is that a larger percentage (37%) is actually spent by local councils than any other region. So if the coalition government wants to take on big spending London it only has to reduce the amount of additional funding (bye bye London weighting?) that it gives to local councils and let them have the responsibility for wielding the axe to spending.

Assessing future prospects

On balance I think it is right to predict that the cuts will be bigger in London than any other region in the UK. So the question remains … Can London’s economy take it?

The answers is probably, for even my very crude calculation shows that if the government achieves the almost impossible 25% cut in public expenditure in London in 2010-11, that will be equivalent to only a 7.4% reduction in London’s GDP. When considering how large and dynamic the London private sector economy is (22% of all UK’s start-ups occurred in London), it is grounds for optimism that London’s economy can absorb austerity measures and still prosper.

However, a word of caution to the view that London’s Economy is strong and resilient. In June 2010, 9% of London’s working age population were unemployed. London now has the highest number of unemployed of any UK region, and with an unemployment rate of 9%, the 3rd highest unemployment rate of any region in the UK. London also has the highest number of job applicants per vacancy for a UK major city.

You may ask if London’s strong and vibrant private sector cannot create enough jobs today, what will change in 2010-11? We will have to wait, cross our fingers and see.

Here is the lowdown:

• All back-to-work support programmes will be collapsed into a “Single Works” programme that will be launched in June 2011
• All contracts for employment programmes that have yet to be signed will now not go ahead.
• All exiting programmes are likely to be extended to June 2011

What happens to ESF funding in this and future years has yet to be decided but it is likely the ESF will be used to support locally the Single Work Programme by providing some additional and locally customised services in areas of high need. Consequently the next round of ESF supported programmes may not start until Single Work Programme starts in June 2011.

Finally, no one in JCP in London has heard anything about the “Working For Yourself” programme that the Coalition Government is committed to launch in order to help more of the unemployed to go self-employed. There is no news when it will start or how it will be contracted but there is an assumption that it will be part of the “Single Work” Programme tender.

So there you have it — more good news.

We do not know the size or extent of the cuts at the London Development Agency, Skills Funding Agency or at London’s Local Councils. If you believe all the reports and rumours in the papers it seems that no business support programme is safe. We will obviously know more at the time of the budget on the 22nd and even more by the end of the summer.

So it is good news that I can report that the Minister for Business & Innovation, Mark Prisk, has agreed to speak and answer questions from Capital Enterprise members at a specially organised event on the 15th September at The British Library. This will be one of the earliest events where the Minister will publicly reveal what are this coalition governments plans for publicly funded Enterprise Support provision.

The word on the street

In the meantime news is leaking out about the pending cuts. This week it was confirmed that expenditure from the national government’s Working Neighbourhood Fund (which is the source of funding for much of local councils enterprise and employment initiatives) may not be honoured. In the light of this London Councils are reviewing the financial position and at least two councils –- Haringey and Islington — have decided not to approve any new contracts to spend from the Working Neighbourhood Fund until the review has been concluded.

Like all reviews, there is a tussle between freezing expenditure on new projects (even when the case for funding is strong) and cutting back spending on existing projects. It is obviously easier, in light of contract compliance considerations, to cut the former rather than latter meaning that those with WNF contracts are much safer (even when under-performing) than those looking to acquire funding for new programmes.   

But it is not all gloomy news, for even in these gloomy times there are new opportunities. Next week at the Capital Enterprise AGM on the 16th June we will be documenting all the potential new opportunities available.

As a taster please check out the new opportunity posted today on www.competefor.com

Global London Sector Specific Export Support

GLE are inviting proposals from potential partners for to help deliver the major Global London internationalisation ERDF project. The contract size is between £25-50K and tenders need to be submitted by the 2nd July. This is a re-tender presumably because there were not sufficient bids of quality from the previous call.

The aim of the project is to promote social and economic cohesion by enhancing high-level sustainable growth, competitiveness and productivity of established businesses in London, strengthening existing entrepreneurs and creating more and better jobs through international trade opportunities.

The project should help overcome the significant barriers to new and emerging market opportunities that diverse London SMEs face (such as reluctance to engage, low levels of skills, poor market information and global competitive pressures), using the following methods: outreach through BAME and sector networks, international/environmental diagnostics, training, awareness events, and support with overseas market visits and international exhibitions.

The aim of this tender is to effectively engage with businesses in the biotech, ICT, fashion, creative, food and environmental sectors and introduce international trade opportunities to them. There will be appointed up to 5 deliverers (one for each sector). The proposal should outreach to London’s sectors deliver understand and seize international sales opportunities in new markets and to connect with and benefit fully from established mainstream trade support services.

More information can be found on:

https://www.competefor.com/business/viewOpportunityDetailsSupplier.html?id=10781151

Many partners there on the day were developing project ideas to submit in the forthcoming calls (deadline 24th September 2010 or April 2011). We had the opportunity to pitch some of the project ideas that you had put forward to us, which generally received a very positive response. We are now in the process of arranging follow-up meetings with those members wishing to take their ideas forwards. 

The Interreg 4b programme Secretariat told us that projects must:

• address a weakness of NWE (such as the regional disparities in R&D expenditure and employment, or the comparatively low levels of R&D investment and employment compared to USA/Asia)
• be transnational in nature, with partners from across the NWE area, each bringing their own strengths and expertise to the partnership. The project must be impossible to achieve on a purely regional level.
• have a clear focus, with tangible transnational outputs that will last beyond the project such as a training programme, new supply chains, a toolkit, a network or even a trading voucher scheme.

The NW Europe website has posted copies of the presentations from the info day.

There is still at least €41m remaining in the pot for Innovation and Technology/Knowledge Transfer projects, so if you’re interested but haven’t yet spoken to us, then get in touch today.

In the meantime in case you missed it, the new government coalition published their Key Policy Programme outlining their priority programmes for the next 5 years. I have copied and pasted the section on Business at the bottom of this blog.

The things you will notice are what is not in the document. There is for instance:

A: No statement concerning the role of government in stimulating and supporting private sector growth and investment. All flirtations with market “Activism” mentioned by both coalition parties prior to the election are now to be dropped with the whole emphasis of government policy now being focused on getting government “off the backs of business with “aspirations” to cut regulations and reduce corporation tax when “resources are permitting”.  So for the time being private sector business will need to rely on low interest rates and more importantly the low £ exchange rate to stimulate demand. Potential this is great news for businesses who export to non- EU countries, but not so great for the rest of small business sector.

B: No mention of supporting enterprise or encouraging entrepreneurship that figure so much in the Tory manifesto. But under the DWP “Welfare and Work” agenda there is a very welcome commitment to a “Work for Yourself” programme. Furthermore, under the equalities agenda there will be a national mentoring scheme for BAME led businesses.  Since both these programmes apparently will be DWP and Home Office initiatives, it means for many of our members the Department of BIS will be less important. They are both national policies and not regional.

C: No firm commitment to the “Competitiveness” agenda the focus of the EU Lisbon Agreement and so beloved of the previous administration. Instead you only get a commitment to consider the implementation of theDyson Review to make the UK the leading hi-tech exporter in Europe, and refocus the research and development tax credit on hi-tech companies, small firms and start-ups

But overall the coalition document has some very good and promising initiatives (ironically, virtually all of the good ones in regards to our members are not in the Business Category). But don’t take my word for it — see for yourself by checking out the document below:

(Content below was copied and pasted from government’s Key Policy Programme)

2. BUSINESS

The Government believes that business is the driver of economic growth and innovation, and that we need to take urgent action to boost enterprise, support green growth and build a new and more responsible economic model. We want to create a fairer and more balanced economy, where we are not so dependent on a narrow range of economic sectors, and where new businesses and economic opportunities are more evenly shared between regions and industries.

• We will cut red tape by introducing a ‘one-in, one-out’ rule whereby no new regulation is brought in without other regulation being cut by a greater amount.
• We will end the culture of ‘tick-box’ regulation, and instead target inspections on high-risk organisations through co-regulation and improving professional standards.
• We will impose ‘sunset clauses’ on regulations and regulators to ensure that the need for each regulation is regularly reviewed.
• We will review IR 35, as part of a wholesale review of all small business taxation, and seek to replace it with simpler measures that prevent tax avoidance but do not place undue administrative burdens or uncertainty on the self-employed, or restrict labour market flexibility.
• We will find a practical way to make small business rate relief automatic.
• We will reform the corporate tax system by simplifying reliefs and allowances, and tackling avoidance, in order to reduce headline rates. Our aim is to create the most competitive corporate tax regime in the G20, while protecting manufacturing industries.
• We will seek to ensure an injection of private capital into Royal Mail, including opportunities for employee ownership. We will retain Post Office Ltd in public ownership.
• We will seek to ensure a level playing field between small and large retailers by enabling councils to take competition issues into account when drawing up their local plans to shape the direction and type of new retail development.
• We will give the public the opportunity to challenge the worst regulations.
• We will review employment and workplace laws, for employers and employees, to ensure they maximise flexibility for both parties while protecting fairness and providing the competitive environment required for enterprise to thrive.
• We will make it easier for people to set up new enterprises by cutting the time it takes to start a new business. Our ambition is to make the UK one of the fastest countries in the world to start up a new business. We will reduce the number of forms needed to register a new business, and move towards a ‘one-click’ registration model.
• We will end the ban on social tenants starting businesses in their own homes.
• We will promote small business procurement, in particular by introducing an aspiration that 25% of government contracts should be awarded to small and medium-sized businesses and by publishing government tenders in full online and free of charge.
• We will consider the implementation of the Dyson Review to make the UK the leading hi-tech exporter in Europe, and refocus the research and development tax credit on hi-tech companies, small firms and start-ups.
• We will review the range of factors that can be considered by regulators when takeovers are proposed.
• We will reinstate an Operating and Financial Review to ensure that directors’ social and environmental duties have to be covered in company reporting, and investigate further ways of improving corporate accountability and transparency.
• We will ensure that Post Offices are allowed to offer a wide range of services in order to sustain the network, and we will look at the case for developing new sources of revenue, such as the creation of a Post Office Bank.
• We will end the so-called ‘gold-plating’ of EU rules, so that British businesses are not disadvantaged relative to their European competitors.
• We will support the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships – joint local authority-business bodies brought forward by local authorities themselves to promote local economic development – to replace Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). These may take the form of the existing RDAs in areas where they are popular.
• We will take steps to improve the competitiveness of the UK tourism industry, recognising the important part it plays in our national economy.

Other Coalition commitments that will affect Entrepreneurs and Business support providers in London include:

• We will develop effective proposals to ensure the flow of credit to viable SMEs. This will include consideration of both a major loan guarantee scheme and the use of net lending targets for the nationalised banks.
• We will abolish the Government Office for London and consider the case for abolishing the remaining Government Offices.
• We will provide incentives for local authorities to deliver sustainable development, including for new homes and businesses.
• We will promote improved community relations and opportunities for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, including by providing internships for under­represented minorities in every Whitehall department and funding a targeted national enterprise mentoring scheme for BAME people who want to start a business.
• We will support would-be entrepreneurs through a new programme – Work for Yourself – which will give the unemployed access to business mentors and start-up loans.
• We will develop local Work Clubs – places where unemployed people can gather to exchange skills, find opportunities, make contacts and provide mutual support.
• We will support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises, and enable these groups to have much greater involvement in the running of public services.
• We will give public sector workers a new right to form employee-owned co-operatives and bid to take over the services they deliver. This will empower millions of public sector workers to become their own boss and help them to deliver better services.
• We will train a new generation of community organisers and support the creation of neighbourhood groups across the UK, especially in the most deprived areas.
• We will take a range of measures to encourage charitable giving and philanthropy.
• We will use funds from dormant bank accounts to establish a ‘Big Society Bank’, which will provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.
• We will take a range of measures to encourage volunteering and involvement in social action, including launching a national day to celebrate and encourage social action, and make regular community service an element of civil service staff appraisals.
• We will seek ways to support the creation of apprenticeships, internships, work pairings, and college and workplace training places as part of our wider programme to get Britain working.

Last night I heard a very rousing speech from Doug Richards at the UCL Enterprise Awards. The ex-Dragon made a compelling case that you do not grow an economy or business by slashing cost, that we do not create wealth and jobs by downsizing. He emphasised that the main focus of all government policies and plans should not be “deficit reduction” but how this new government (preferably in partnership with businesses, universities and not-for-profits such as enterprise agencies) can foster and grow entrepreneurship in Britain. It is to entrepreneurs, and the much neglected small business, that the country must now rely on to help the UK economy compete with tiger economies such as China. If not entrepreneurs, then who will create the jobs and wealth?

It is in this spirit that we hope that the Department of BIS, and particularly the Minister for Small Businesses, will take a leading role in this new government. We hope that enterprise support in all its guises (whether that be helping the unemployed to return to work via self-employment, helping a new entrepreneur to develop and bring to market a new game breaking technology, or helping an SME to overcome the barriers that prevent them exporting their products and services overseas) is given its due recognition. We believe it is not a time to cut back on investing in entrepreneurship, but a time to increase that investment.

We therefore wish the new Minister every luck in finding those much advertised efficiency savings preferably by attacking the unnecessary bureaucracy that plagues the sector, by dropping the mindless focus on “gateways” and by cutting back funding for programmes that are failing because they vainly seek to incentivise the small business to invest money and time in activities that they cannot directly benefit from (See my previous blog to get a better idea about what I mean) .

We hope the savings made are used to encourage and enable more people to start up a business (especially the type that will grow rapidly) and to support and enable existing businesses to innovate, invest and grow. If the government is pleading they are still short of cash, then we strongly advise that do more to encourage, if not coerce, the major corporations in the UK to dip into the pockets to provide new funding for enterprise support programmes.

Finally, on behalf of our enterprise agency and charity members, we strongly urge the new Minister works with Capital Enterprise and organisations such as the NFEA to find a long term solution towards the funding of local enterprise support delivery. “The Big Society” agenda demands that at the heart of a local community is a vibrant and competitive economy and we believe at the heart of that economy there needs to be not for profit agency solely dedicated to helping its constituents (entrepreneurs and small businesses) prosper. So what we want is a new coalition – they seem to be all the rage.

P.S. If you want to hear Doug Richards speak, he and his School for Entrepreneurs is at the London Met on the 26th May. For more details: schoolforstartups.co.uk/events