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.

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.

The Capital Enterprise Winter 2010 full members meeting at the British Library this Friday is an opportunity for members to take part in a discussion on the future plans and priorities for Capital Enterprise in 2010 and beyond.