Businesses urge government to provide business support urgently to enable the UK to hit future growth and net zero targets
The National Enterprise Network (NEN) launched its Manifesto for Change in Enterprise Support at its annual conference where business leaders and influencers across the country united in calling for a national support programme.
Delegates at the conference, held at Barclays Canary Wharf HQ on Friday November 25th, called on the government to prioritise business support and resolve the current fragmentation and confusion around funding. The call followed a recent NEN survey which demonstrated 99% of the country’s small businesses needed support now if they are to generate growth and hit net zero targets.
A debate by senior industry figures called for the change, backing the enterprise agencies in the room who work on the ground in their local areas, often on a 1:1 basis to provide much-needed business advice, funding and low cost accommodation for the country’s start-ups, micro and small businesses.
The panel consisting of Philip Clifford from the LGA, Simon Goon, Umi, Mark Livesey, LEP Network, Flora Hamilton, Chartered Business Schools and Liz Barclay, Small Business Commissioner discussed the current fragmented nature of business support following the UK’s departure from the EU and recent changes in funding as projects previously funded through Local Enterprise Partnerships were being absorbed by local authorities.
Liz Barclay emphasised the importance of the provision being better targeted, and easier to access.
“We talk about SMEs as group, but that covers as massive range of business types and tends to focus on the medium sized businesses. We need to break it down, look at the needs of sole traders, micro traders, small traders and scale-ups. We need to know what businesses actually need and how they perceive themselves so we talk to them in the right language.
“We have a huge infrastructure for supporting business but navigating it is the challenge. We need a simple gateway – a single point of entry which I call Business 111 – which enables people to get into the right part of that infrastructure, and which covers stages, sectors, stage of growth – something that is more bespoke and signposts them to the right support at the right time.
Simon Goon added: “The challenges are those of fragmentation. We can meet the needs of the business community, but it is needed in a more co-ordinated way because support is too dependent on short term funded programmes, and this is crippling businesses because they need more flexible longer-term support.”
He said that government funded business support programmes were often time-restricted so by the time the contract had been awarded and the programme set-up, there was minimal time to deliver meaningful outputs, and then businesses had to wait for the next funding round to start again before they could get more support.
“We want to create a more productive economy, but we have to realise that if we are to support businesses we can’t always demand job creation as a requirement as that implies less productivity. We want to help businesses to grow further but for some clients it is just about survival now. If we can get them through that, then they can grow.”
Mark Livesey from the LEP Network was concerned that the devolution agenda would mean there was a risk business support would stop in some areas leaving gaps where local authorities could not agree on the provision.
Liz Barclay described the situation as ‘a postcode lottery in terms of what support businesses get’ while Philip Clifford argued that local solutions were the way forward, supported by a core central offer to ensure consistency.
The panel’s views were backed by delegates who said they believed the government needed to take some responsibility for business support.
Patricia Marks, SBA CIC said: “We are already on the high street, we have work spaces, we work with any business – no membership fee is needed, and we are out there in the local community, using libraries, connected into the local finance ecosystem and banks. We have the knowledge, contacts and experience to work with any size of business, at any time to provide the quality signposting and support they need. It is so important we also get the support we need to continue to help our businesses thrive.”
Steve Taylor, a business advisor from Southampton? Said the support for businesses needed to be more standardised – more about delivery on the ground and less about reporting. And he also advocated a single point of entry which geolocated businesses to the right local support. Mark Blake of Joyfully Different asked for more accessible support focused at vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, as the process of accessing guidance and funding was even harder for them.
Alex Till, NEN chair, pledged to work with the government to achieve change: “We have been doing this for 40 years, supporting businesses grow and survive, and there is a real passion to get this right for the long term. What we need most of all now to ensuring ideas and any money available is put towards a national support programme. We will work with government to see what we can create.”
NEN released the results of its Business Barometer survey at the conference showing almost 100% of the country’s key business growth drivers are calling on the government to prioritise business support.
• More than half (52%) said they were expecting growth in the coming year,
• Three quarters (76%) were worried about rising costs and a similar number expected to need funding
• Almost all of them (99%) said they needed business support NOW
The full survey results are available here: https://nationalenterprisenetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/NEN-Business-Barometer-Report.pdf