The CEO's 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.

Newham College and Capital Enterprise “Future Job” scheme has been cancelled. We were informed by letter last Friday that our Future Job scheme to create 86 jobs in our membership exclusively for long term unemployed young people in East London was no longer to be funded.

As it becomes increasingly apparent that the will of the people in the upcoming election is for the muddle and uncertainly of a hung parliament, what lies ahead for publicly funded enterprise support services? To help Capital Enterprise members to “read the runes” we invited Anthony Browne, the Mayor of London Policy Director for Economic Development, to give us a presentation.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, launched Capital Enterprise’s empty property website www.londonnewenterprise.co.uk, last Friday. In so doing, the Mayor made the first announcement in public (to my knowledge) that he will look to re-focus resources, which are presently spent on helping to train the long term unemployed for non-existing jobs, to supporting entrepreneurs to start, grow and create jobs. Whether these off-the cuff remarks become public policy only time will tell, but it is increasingly obvious that whoever wins the election, there will be significant changes to the whys, hows and wherefores of public sector funded Enterprise Support.