Minister Agrees to Speak at Capital Enterprise Meeting

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.

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