Businesses have welcomed government measures to encourage enterprise outlined in a White Paper published on Wednesday.
The paper, ‘Enterprise: Unlocking the Nation’s Talent’, highlighted measures to boost innovation, including removing red tape and improving enterprise skills and knowledge.
Proposals included simplifying enforcement of new regulation for small firms, as well as an independent review to recommend ways of giving small businesses greater certainty on how to comply with legislation.
It also outlined plans to improve enterprise skills, including an additional £30m to fund enterprise education at primary schools and further education colleges, a National Enterprise Academy in partnership with entrepreneur Peter Jones, and funding for the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship to establish a national network of university clusters.
The report also included new proposals to fund small businesses, with 20% more money allocated to the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme and £30m support for mezzanine finance provision through Enterprise Capital Funds.
Sally Low, director of policy and external affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the paper contained many encouraging initiatives.
“The government has made some strong commitments: to introduce regulatory budgets; to hasten regulatory culture change by embedding the ‘think small first’ principle into government policy, and to increase investment to boost access to finance, which could help growing, ambitious firms to become bigger and better.
“We welcome initiatives designed to increase the level of enterprise education in our schools and colleges. Sowing the seeds for a new generation of entrepreneurs and business people is absolutely essential for long term economic success,” she said.
“We will work with the government to ensure that today’s proposals are turned into real benefits for our members”.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008
