Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
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Enterprise strategy making UK the best for business growth
The Government today publishes Enterprise: Unlocking the UK's Talent, a new 10 year strategy to make the UK the most enterprising economy in the world - and the best place to start and grow a business.
It is designed to unlock the nation's entrepreneurial talents; boost enterprise skills and knowledge; help new and existing business get funding to start up and grow; and ease the burden of regulation - particularly on small firms which feel its impacts most.
Specific proposals include:
* Consulting on the introduction
of a new system of regulatory budgets for Government departments
that would set out the cost of new regulation that could be
introduced within a given period. This would be a world first
* Exempting or simplifying enforcement of new regulation for small firms where possible
* An independent review, led by Sarah Anderson, to recommend ways
of giving small businesses greater certainty on how to comply with
legislation, initially focussing on employment law
* Extending
lending and funding schemes including allocating a 20 per cent
increase to the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme, extending
eligibility to growing businesses more than five years old,
committing £12.5m to co-invest in a £25m capital fund investing in
women led businesses and £30m support for mezzanine finance
provision through Enterprise Capital Funds to fill the market gap
* An additional £30 million to extend enterprise education to primary schools and further education colleges
* A National Enterprise Academy, in partnership with entrepreneur Peter Jones, offering skills training and qualifications to 16 to 19 year olds.
* Funding for the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship to establish a national network of university enterprise clusters
* Tailored support for young entrepreneurs, the over 50s and women
* A set of detailed measures promoting business to business mentoring, work placements, skills training, improved careers advice on self-employment and access to business support and to finance for growth.
There will be independent review of the barriers to SMEs winning a greater proportion of Government contracts, to be led by Anne Glover of Amadeus. This will include studying the practicality of a 30 per cent target for Government procurement from SMEs.
In addition, to reduce delays for travellers at Heathrow, new targets are being introduced to reduce queuing at security along with incentives to invest in improved facilities for passengers, greater use of automated biometric technology and, together with airlines, development of a fast track route through immigration.
The new policy priorities are the result of six months of extensive consultation with more than 600 businesses and business leaders, meetings with representative bodies and of economic analysis of what drives enterprise and growth.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "The UK is well placed to meet the challenges of globalisation but our ability to succeed in the new world will be defined first and foremost by our adaptability. Our success as a trading nation - whether in products, services or knowledge - has and will always result from a spirit of openness, enterprise and innovation. We must unlock this talent."
Business and Enterprise Secretary John Hutton said: "We want more new and growing businesses in the UK and more companies and people acting on their enterprising ideas. The UK's long term prosperity lies in unlocking the talent of enterprise for people from all sections of society and in our small businesses, helping them to grow."
Today's announcement builds on the Government's successes of the past decade, which have focused strongly on enterprise as one of the key drivers of productivity. The UK now has a record four and a half million businesses; higher business survival rates; and an internationally recognised environment for enterprise.
Published jointly by HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, it details five areas where Government will focus its efforts. These are:
* Culture - developing an enterprise culture where everyone with entrepreneurial talent is inspired and not afraid to take up the challenge of turning ideas into wealth
* Knowledge and Skills - ensuring that people and businesses have the tools to support the growth of their businesses
* Access to Finance - ensuring start ups and growing businesses can get the finance they need
* Business Innovation - reinforcing innovation's role at the root of all entrepreneurial activity
* Regulatory Framework - recognising that unnecessary or complex regulation can stifle enterprise and have a disproportionate impact on small firms.
Enterprise: Unlocking the UK's Talent, is the first complete new strategy from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform since its creation last year to bring fresh impetus to the Government's support for business growth and rising productivity.
Notes to editors:
1. Regulatory Guidance Review
Every year almost half of all
businesses seek external advice about how to follow regulations,
spending at least £1.4 billion. The Government is today
commissioning an independent review led by Sarah Anderson into how
it can implement policies to give small businesses greater
certainty around guidance - including looking at the legal status
of guidance, legal disclaimers, and other options. Actions
delivering even a 5% reduction of the lowest estimate of the size
of the market for business advice on regulation would mean a
reduction in business spending by more than £72 million.
Sarah Anderson CBE ran her own company for 19 years - Mayday Group - a four branch specialist employment business and agency providing catering staff. Other business interests include being joint founder and director of Simple Solutions Ltd. She is also a non-executive director of Jobcentre Plus, the UK's largest government agency and a council member of ACAS. In October 2005, she was appointed director of London Samaritans and has been a member of the Employment Tribunal Steering Board since April 2006. In her past she has provided 'angel' finance and worked as a small business counsellor in London.
2. SMEs and Public Sector Contracts
The Government has set up
an advisory committee, chaired by Anne Glover (Chief Executive of
Amadeus Capital Partners Limited), to provide advice on necessary
Government action to reduce the barriers to SMEs competing for
public sector contracts, within the scope of EU law and the policy
objective of value for money and advise on the practicality of
setting a goal for SMEs to win 30 per cent of all public sector
business within the next five years.
Anne Glover is a co-founder and Chief Executive of Amadeus Capital Partners and previously worked for Apax Partners as a member of the investment team and subsequently as a business angel investing in UK-based information technology start-ups. Having studies metallurgy and materials science at Cambridge she sits on the boards of medical technology companies Optos and Glysure Ltd. She is a former chairman of the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association's venture platform and a member of the Government's Technology Strategy Board.
3. Enterprise: Unlocking the UK's Talent, published jointly by HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reform, is available from: http://www.berr.gov.uk/enterprisestrategy
4. The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform helps UK business succeed in an increasingly competitive world. It promotes business growth and a strong enterprise economy, leads the better regulation agenda and champions free and fair markets. It is the shareholder in a number of Government-owned assets and it works to secure, clean and competitively priced energy supplies.
Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory
Reform
7th Floor, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET
Public enquiries +44 (0)20 7215 5000
Textphone +44 (0)20 7215
6740 (for those with hearing impairment)
http://www.berr.gov.uk
