October 01 1998
by Mike TuffreyThe present government came into office having promised no real change to the main architecture of its predecessor's business support structures. Given how much time and effort individual business people had put in personally to get the system going, perhaps the government-in-waiting thought it prudent to leave well alone. Even proposals to "enhance" Business Links soon proved to be mere incremental improvements (although no less welcome for that).
But the structure is inherently unstable. The loudest calls for change now come from those same business people, frustrated at wasting their time. The high number of TEC/chamber/BL mergers prior to the moratorium is evidence of them trying to sort it out locally. Most important, the customers - the small businesses who provide the life-blood of future economic success - are confused and complaining.
In the short term, the arrival of regional development agencies makes matters worse: their sponsoring government department is the DETR, holders of the regeneration purse strings, while the DfEE runs Tecs and the DTI the Business Links. But the only long term answer is hand it all over to the regions, with merged funding streams.
Of course civil servants won't like giving up their empires, nor ministers their opportunities for photocalls and sound-bites when launching new national initiatives. So it won't happen unless business demands it, speaking with one voice. Companies large and small must get firmly involved in the new regional chambers, crafting close working partnerships with local politicians and other community representatives. They must also ensure that the business-led RDAs then follow the regional blue-prints devised by consensus in these chambers. At that point, the case for local control of the whole structure will be incontrovertible and the original vision of business-led regeneration can finally be realised.
Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 42 - October, 1998