the business ladder

New measures were announced by the government yesterday which set out to encourage growth of local businesses, and thus boost the economic conditions in communities.

Twenty-four cross-country, local businesses are to receive funding, which will see enterprise leaders and private sector stakeholders working alongside local authorities to establish new means of promoting investment in local companies.  

This move is expected to create the initial movement towards local business partnerships, with hopes that more will appear in the future. The original invitation for these partnership deals was met with 62 responses. There is also a new fund aimed to boost the numbers of jobs in the private sector, especially in areas where jobs are primarily reliant on the public sector, comprising of a £1.4 billion Regional Growth fund.

The areas in question are in a particularly weak position, with public sector job losses increasing in line with the government’s extensive spending cuts. Some are worrying that the capabilities of the private sector to provide adequate employment opportunities may not develop fast enough to alleviate the negative impact of the surge in unemployment.

Only a small number of commentators think that the Regional Growth Fund will be enough to help control the numbers of the unemployed, despite it being set to help a number of companies in these specific areas.

The White Paper on local growth saw the latest measures published yesterday, suggestions included the proposal that local authorities should be encouraged to depend on Tax Increment Funding more. This finance raising technique has been met with much controversy, as it is based on borrowing money against future business rate revenues.

<--- return to news section

For additional information and to request a quote, please register with us by clicking here.