After pressure from business lobby groups, it was announced yesterday that Gordon Brown’s Business Council for Britain will set up a working group to advise it on issues affecting small business.
Following a cabinet reshuffle last year, Gordon Brown abolished the Small Business Council, replacing it with the Business Council for Britain, which has high-profile advisors such as Sir Richard Branson and Sir Alan Sugar.
Small business groups, including the Forum of Private Business (FPB) slammed the move, saying the council under-represented small business.
At the time, members of the FPB wrote to the secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, calling on him to rethink the changes. “Smaller firms must have a voice at the heart of government,” they wrote.
The council’s chairman, Mervyn Davies, said the new group would focus on barriers to setting up and growing small businesses.
Davies told the Financial Times the UK’s ‘spirit of entrepreneurialism’ is on the increase, but the lack of a US-style venture capital industry to fund start-ups will present a ‘big challenge’ to the group.
“We have absolutely got to reduce the regulation and the red tape for small business; that’s a very pressing challenge. And we’ve got to help small businesses grow internationally without building their cost base,” he added.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008
