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.
Gazing into the Political Future
In my opinion both main political parties have dropped significant hints that there will be a significant reduction in the amount of funding for enterprise support, economic regeneration, university-business research collaborations and skills training. An almost perfect storm for our sector. Even European funding will soon come to an end as we approach the last few months for new funding calls from the 2007-2013 Economic Regional Development funding steams. Finally, even when there is significant injection of funding such as the latest LAGBI allocation, because it is not ring-fenced, the funding for measures to support economic recovery are spent by councils on anything but.
What is apparent is that both main political parties have a clear difference of opinion regarding the approach and mechanism of supporting new entrepreneurs and trading small businesses. The Labour party remains committed to the present LDA/Business Link infrastructure. As you can see from the Lord Davies’ interview in the Sunday Times, this top down one-size-fits all approach is being backed even if they are not sure how it can be funded, and if they do fund it, if there is any room or funding for anything else but Business Link.
The Tories, as we know from Marks Prisk’s talk to our members, are committed to scrapping both the RDA’s and the Business Links. However, they only seemingly have only a vague commitment to finding funds for a grass root replacement service with talk of limiting their commitment to pump-prime funding of enterprise agencies until they can become “self-sufficient”.
We, like the rest of the country, will have to live with the uncertainty over our medium term futures.
Preparing for Further Reductions in Funding
To help us prepare for the inevitable reduction in available funding, I will be putting together a paper to present at our Annual Meeting on the 23rd April that will explore ways we can change and adapt so that we can survive and maintain current service levels on less money.
Of course, if the Mayor and the LDA have a change of mind and see the relative worth of helping entrepreneurs to start, grow and create jobs and wealth, then we may not have to.
