Many small business support schemes offered by the government are a waste of taxpayers’ money and a missed opportunity to help entrepreneurs, the businessman appointed by the Tories to review Labour’s aid for enterprise has declared.
Doug Richard, best known as a ‘dragon’ from the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, where business ideas are pitched for investment, says his review will determine the effectiveness of 3,000 available schemes.
The Library House chairman said he shares the ambition of state parties to make Britain the best location in the world to grow a small venture, and is therefore ‘happy’ to probe the impact of Labour’s support network.
However speaking in an interview with The Financial Times, the software entrepreneur said his status as an American acts almost as a guarantor that the review will be independent, and free from political point-scoring.
His appointment to review the state’s resources for small business comes just weeks after the British Chambers of Commerce called for The Small Business Service to be scrapped, in light of what the group said was the agency’s ongoing failings.
The small business lobbyist pointed to research claiming over 80% of their members have seen no improvement in building an enterprise culture, while a further quarter actually think prospects have worsened.
The gloomy picture has been expanded by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the professional services firm, which last month found that the awareness level of nine state-backed enterprise schemes among its target audience – small firms – was just 30%.
Similar doubts over the effectiveness of state-backed initiatives to promote independent business have been aired by the CBI, the employers organisation and ‘voice for small business,’ and the NAO, the independent spending watchdog.
Financial experts responding to business advisor Tenon have also questioned the role of the current tax system in fostering small business, to recently brand HM Revenue & Customs as being ‘out of touch’ with entrepreneurs.
Little wonder then that the Conservatives have called for “root and branch reform” of the monetary and resources schemes that govern small businesses, so the UK can become the ultimate global location to start-up and expand a business.
The party claims the government has unhelpfully created a million-pound “maze” of business support schemes, regardless of a pledge in the March Budget that there will be no more than 100 by 2008. Alan Duncan MP said the government has invested almost £3m in this unhelpful ‘maze’.
“Both the quality and quantity of state support for business needs a complete rethink”, said Doug Richard, reflecting on his forthcoming review.
He added: “The failure to provide effective support is both a waste of taxpayers' money and a lost opportunity to grow an entrepreneurial economy. A willingness to spend money is not enough.”
Sep 12, 2006
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