Spring to Action Ltd

Celebrate 100 Years of International Women's Day

On a recent hen do, a woman with young children told me "Women should be told not to bother with university and a career.  It's all rubbish. What a waste of time going to university"!  After having twins she found she needed to reduce her hours at work, but her law firm was unsupportive.  She tried changing career but her teaching job was also unsupportive and she had to give up work completely. 

This story was repeated amongst other attendees, who's also found balancing work and home difficult with a few exceptions. Whilst I wouldn't agree that going to university was necessarily a waste of time, I have sympathy with the sentiment.  Finishing university doesn't mean the hard work is over, it's just beginning.

Listening to Annie Lennox she described many people this morning as 'living in a bubble'.  Although I partly agree with her, I also think that many women in the UK live in reality, where poverty is never far from their door, where inequality is a fact of life and where they face everyday challenges to survive.  Inequality is present both here and abroad.

Tomorrow is International Women's Day, a day where women are honored throughout the world.  The last 100 years of International Women's Day day have seen many changes and developments including gaining the right to vote in the UK, access to university, to prominent political seats including a Prime Minister.  This is a chance to celebrate women and the advances and highlight the work yet to be done.

Find out what events are going on near you.  Leicester is holding a Public Meeting at the Secular Hall  and you're invited, or join in the debate online or with friends and family as step towards positive change.

Meanwhile, my friend from the hen do is considering starting up her own business so she can be in charge of her working hours, pay and looking after the children. Hopefully she got a few words of encouragement from me!

One Size Fits All?

Wouldn't it be fantastic if every business just had a one stop shop for all their business needs? Everybody would have a clear point of contact and would know where to go for information.  What's more, it would be pretty straightforward for those organisations tasked with monitoring business support, because there would just be one contract to monitor.

Ah, but wait! We have Business Link. The brand tasked with supporting all businesses to grow / develop.  I say brand, because for those of you blissfully unaware of the intricacies of public policy, Business Link is  several organisations working under one banner.

My problem isn't that the brand, one with differing reputations in different areas of the country.  I'm more concerned with the customer/s.  Because every business has different needs, approaches and skills.  I'm concerned that this current government will be looking to cut business support further, reducing the number and size of organisations delivering support to just a small few.

I think this doesn't make sense.  Currently in Leicester alone there are at least five organisations offering contracted business support.  They all support slightly different segments of the market and it works pretty well.  Ok so it's a bit confusing.  And yes quality is an issue.  But believe me, the customer is confused by Business Link and quality can be an issue there too (ofcourse, not in Leicester).  Let's continue to make savings where we can, but keep the range of breadth of organisations who deliver quality support that businesses want, where they want it.

How would you propose that business support is delivered? What changes would you make to ensure you get the support you need, when and how you need it?  Or should we just chuck it all away and save the pennies & pounds for the NHS, education or frontline services?

Regen Roundup

The Coalition government seem to be releasing news at a rate of knots we haven't seen for years.  To help you keep up, we've compiled a quick list of some of the most important items:

• The government has announced it's intention to start a Regional Growth Fund and seeks your views
• How would you like to see Skills policy in the future? BIS starts a consultation
• Local Enterprise Partnerships are moving forward - Mark Prisk met local government representatives and business leaders to hear their views
• Meanwhile, David Cameron begins to set out his vision for the Big Society, launching it in Liverpool

What do you think the Coalition government should so about it's growth fund, how should it focus limited resources yet improve skills for all and what do you think about the Big Society? Let us know.

How Do we Support High Growth Businesses?

Much has been made of late about where business support is heading, that is, should the government pay for it? The focus appears to be heading toward high growth businesses who apparently will be employing the masses of ex public sector workers who are likely to be laid off as a result of the cuts.

Sounds fair, doesn't it? Let's incentivise high growth businesses to employ lots of new staff, cutting the welfare budget and the public sector wage bill.  Win win, eh?

Little discussion or focus appears to have been made around how these high growth businesses will be found. How do we decide which businesses have the potential for high growth, and indeed which don't? What has worked either at home or abroad to 'make' these businesses dramatically improve their profits and employ more people (are the two always linked?).

There is another important question for me.  When we've helped these high growth businesses grow, and they are ticking along nicely, how do we assist the next generation of high growths? 

This is a discussion which will probably roll on, but it's important we start the debate anyway. And then let's continue the debate about how we should support all people, regardless of background, to start new businesses because that's a very important point. Something we at Spring are very concerned about.

Tomorrow is D Day for the Budget

Finally the day arrives when we all get to hear about where the budget cuts are falling and just how fast.  Is anyone else feeling a little nervous?

Already we've heard snippets of news, that Business Link's regional offices will be shut, that public sector pay and pensions will be frozen, that startup support will drastically change, and that local workspace capital developments have been stopped.

Indeed, when I wrote about this a few months ago, I asked what would you cut?

The question is developing as the days go past...now I would ask what would you cut and WHY? Let's face it, we can go ahead and cut everything that costs a significant amount of money, but we really need to ask ourselves what projects does this country need to prosper?

Which projects or developments will help us create jobs, build more prosperous communities and businesses, make the UK a better place to live and work in these tough economic times?

I just hope these aspects are being considered alongside the monetary aspects. Otherwise it really will be a return to the 80's of boom and bust. 

Business Funding Cuts Announced

The coalition government has announced £6.2 bn of funding cuts to reduce the deficit. Much of it will come from the Department of Communities and the Ministry for Business Innovation and Skills.  This will include stopping or reducing project funding, stopping the Future Jobs Fund and reducing spend by Local Authorities.

Whilst much of this was to be expected, it won't be painless.  These cuts are certainly headline grabbers, but I wonder what redundancy payments will need to be made and what they will amount to? Who will undertake some of these jobs - for example work by the Skills Funding Agency? They said it wouldn't be painless and they were right.

The breakdown of cuts by the BBC is very interesting.  Notably, ministers will no longer have their own ministerial cars but will be encouraged to use public transport or pool cars.  Are these the only spending cuts ministers can personally take? Could we reduce some of the House of Commons expenditure - removing their cosy privildges? It may not total up to a huge amount in the scheme of things, but it would certainly lead from the top.

For my money, I have a few proposals of my own. Removing the penalty of underspend would be a great start.  Projects are often strongly encouraged to spend all of their year's budget, wherever they can. Giving back money at the end of the year is a no-no because funding bids ask if you have ever underspent.  This is crazy. We must change our approach and celebrate when projects achieve and underspend. I think the public would be outraged if they knew how many projects essentially threw away cash (in the thousands) every year.

The coalition has also released it's Coalition Agreement, outlining it's policy priorities and restating the urgency of reducing the deficit.

What budget reductions do you support? What issues can you see with the governments proposals?

Enterprise and Regen Round Up

Amongst the election headlines there are some enterprise and business related headlines, although perhaps difficult to spot amongst the political statements.

Some of the interesting news sourced by the team at Spring to Action is:

• Rise in business failures - 26,000 businesses failed last year in the UK, despite the governments efforts at stimuli. Corporate insolvencies were 59% higher than in 2007 (before the recession) but that is lower than expected.
• The Queen's Awards for Enterprise have been announced, winners in the East Midlands include Tamper Technologies (Derbyshire), Garford Farm Machinery (Lincolnshire), Newtons4th Ltd (Leicestershire), Reeves Wireline Techologies (Leicestershire), Prof Simon Denny (Northamptonshire) of the University of Northamptonshire and Maureen Milgram Forrest (Leicestershire) of LeicestHERday Trust. Many congratulations!
• The East Midlands Funding Forum has released the findings from it's Future Funding event.  Outcomes appear to be a stark warning over funding in 2011 from funders, and increasing competition for charitable funding.  Organisations are advised to make themselves lean and mean, to compete more effectively.
• SEEM are offering the chance for 3 lucky winners to participate in an advert worth £1,000 by the Social Enterprise Mark, for a publication of their choice.

After Thursday, I suspect there will be more news to report.  I'm not clear though, on whether there will be any drastic changes to policy for the coming weeks.  But it certainly feels like lots of organisations are unable to commit to anything until they know the outcome of the election.

Election Fever: What would YOU do?

Just 7 days to go til we hit the polling stations to decide who next runs our country.  The final live broadcast debate has just come to a close with many questions left unanswered but perhaps for some people it may have helped them decide which box to put their cross in.

Whatever happens, there will be cuts in the regeneration sector due to the recession. There will be challenges to face and issues to resolve. Times will be tough, certainly as I have never experienced. Not so many years ago I remember wondering why there was so many different enterprise projects and just where all the money was coming from. 

Those days truly are gone.  For my money I would look at:

- Project selection - strategically deciding on the right projects, delivered by the right organisations in the right way.

- Project wastage.  How many times have we all been told to 'spend our budget ... all of it!' because it will just be taken away next year. Is it really so difficult to carry forward spend or rejoyce in projects that underspend but achieve.

Well, that's a start anyway.  What would you include in manifesto? What really gets your goat about how projects are funded?

Tories Announce Plans to Scrap Business Link

This isn't what I was expecting to read about today. If elected, the Conservatives have announced plans to scrap the £190m a year Business Link service, in favour of government taking a more 'hands off' approach - and support Local Enterprise Agencies.  The support would last 3 years (matching current funding levels), after which they would expect Enterprise Agencies to have found other sources of funding (including the management of workspaces) to support their activities.

Interesting. Whilst the initial idea of saving £190m a year sounds fantastic to those of us worried about the level of debt the UK is currently in, I also have concerns about where exactly they see these other sources of funding as coming from?  Many workspaces do not make a significant profit, and those that do primarily target audiences that can afford to pay higher rental levels. I would struggle to see where they would generate enough profit to pay for the kind of levels of staffing Business Links have, at present levels.  Are they proposing more contracts and tendering for business support that currently exist? And what about the business simplification process?

The Business Link service is free at the point of delivery, meaning that people from all backgrounds, all incomes can participate in enterprise and be encouraged to do so. Business Links do not currently offer advice, which many of us bemoan as that is precisely what businesses want - a specific answer to a specific question at a time and place that suits them.

If we do not support businesses in this way are we not at risk of further fuelling the poverty gap between the have and the have nots? 

Enterprise Agencies can be amazing organisations, but let's not forget that there is no quality criteria to becoming one.  

I think we need more detail please Conservatives, because at present there are just a few flaws to this plan.