Community, Public Policy

The new government's relations with business got off to an unsteady start. Putting senior business leaders in charge of key task forces sends one message. Bullying the lottery 'fat cats' and the rail and water industries sends quite another. The overall direction is clear, but individual ministers, once in post, have plenty of scope to set their own tone.

Of all the changes and plans for the future, two stand out as immediately relevant to community affairs managers. The first is the ambitious youth employment and training programme. Will this simply be a make-work scheme with people returning to the dole queue once the windfall tax runs out? Or will it achieve a quantum leap in the skills level of Britain's under 25s work-force? The former will have a short-term 'register effect' only. The latter could result in a more productive economy and higher long term employment levels, with more goods and services sold in the competitive global economy.

So the focus must be on training, rather than on job creation. At present, there is too much 'churn' in the youth labour market: over 60% of young people unemployed for six months already find work within another six months, but it is often in low paid, low skill, short term jobs, followed swiftly by another period of unemployment.

What role should the private sector play (in addition, of course, to paying for it all through retrospective taxation)? Programmes which mix the unemployed with people in work succeed best, as shown by schemes like Prince's Trust Volunteers and mentoring. With Business in the Community chairman, Peter Davis, leading the thinking, here is a golden opportunity to build a scheme which really draws in companies, fits with existing programmes especially in the TECs, and achieves a lasting effect.

The second issue is the regional development agencies, on which private sector representatives will sit. The details are not yet settled, but the only available money is in existing SRB budgets and European regional grants, currently decided by central government alone through their regional offices. The previous government constantly exhorted companies to get involved in partnership but did not give the private sector a direct say over how these public funds should be spent. If (and it's still a big if) central government does relinquish control to RDAs, companies will rapidly need a coherent view on regional economic and social development as a whole, and their role not simply as part-funders of a few local schemes. Are community affairs departments equipped for this broader, policy-making role?

Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 34 - June, 1997