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Mixed reactions to Tories' plan to scrap Business LinkShadow Minister for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk's announcement that the Conservatives will scrap Business Link if they win the general election has prompted mixed reactions from the business community. Mr Prisk told The Sunday Times that he believes regional Business Links are "failing in their task" and wants enterprise agencies to take a bigger role in helping small businesses. However, some people have questioned the efficacy of enterprise agencies as a replacement for Business Link. Len Tondel, chairman of the Home Business Alliance (HBA), told BAD News: "Although Mark Prisk suggests that enterprise agencies inherit Business Link's activities, enterprise agencies too have variable results. There are good and bad examples from both sectors. The wealth of experience and the loyalty of Business Link's advisers, who are independent professionals and not civil servants, is too precious to be cast aside, let alone suffer replacement by websites and self-centred local interests." Jo Reese, leadership and management adviser at Business Link for the West of England, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, agrees that Business Link provides a valuable service and that the welfare of small businesses should be at the heart of any decision to change business support facilities. She said: "You don't reinvent the wheel just for the sake of it. Sometimes the shape of the wheel might need to be changed but if your key priority is to build the economy through the sheer number of SMEs we have in this country then it's about the support they need to help them grow and develop and become stronger and more competitive. We're focused on what we can do to help our local economy." Matthew Goodman, policy representative at the Forum of Private Business (FPB), believes that the continuity of support for small firms is the most important issue. He said: "We have some concerns about this, primarily because we believe there should be continuity of business support regardless of what colour the new Government is. The continuity of support is the most important thing." However, he added that there is a finite amount of support Business Link can provide, which it should recognise. "Business Link does help," he said. "But I think it's important that it knows where to stop and to hand over businesses to an organisation that has better expertise." The proposal to scrap the service altogether has been welcomed in some quarters, with a move towards more private sector business support being advocated. "The best way would be to wipe out all of what's there and start again because what we've got is a piecemeal mish-mash," said Jonathan Russell, vice president of the UK200Group, a mutual professional association of quality assured accountants and lawyers. "We have a plethora of organisations trying to help business, the lead one being Business Link, and mostly they are promoting free help to businesses. The general view of businesses is that you get what you pay for. Some are better than others, the quality of what is delivered is poor but the cost to the Government is high. A lot of what the Government is trying to provide is already available in the private sector and most small businesses would rather buy what they need rather than be told what they need. It would be much better if the Government didn't spend any money on trying to support them and just reduced the cost of compliance to businesses." To read Mark Prisk's full interview in The Sunday Times go to:
Add a comment:5 comments so far:Albert Wright (16 Mar 2010) It has been so for as long as I remember - at least since 1990 when I started in the Business Support sector. Enterprise Agencies do not get enough publicity despite the NFEA, 200 locations and over 100 members. The Business Link web site is better than ever for Start Up help. What remains missing is a National Start up Advice Programme with up to 2 hours FREE face to face advice for anyone wanting to start a business, once every 5 years, tracked by reference to an individual's National Insurance number, from good business advisers. I shall campaign for this for another 20 years in the hope that one Government will listen. David Moody (08 Mar 2010) The Business Link working model is based on brokerage, that is guiding the clients to the most relevant service, be it private or public sector. That is a good model.It is then up to the client to act. This does require a little 'hand holding' for some....but the target culture in B. Link, as with all other gov. orgs. gives no time or praise for customer service, staff are totally obsessed with the numbers, not the client. The staff are in fact very good, but are not allowed to express this to customers... just like nurses, teachers, police, and all gov departments and private contractors et al who are all driven by numbers. So if an expensive change is made the same problem will ensue. I say again the Business Model is OK, it's the implementation which is at fault, the cause is targets, not the Business Link staff. Neil Davey (02 Mar 2010) The enterprise agencies are rapidly dying out due to lack of funding but whilst there may be variable results from them they do offer 1-2-1 meetings with a business advisor. This is something Business Link does no longer do but in my experience of dealing with start-up/small businesses it is the personal face to face contact which is vital if they are to be helped effectively. Unless Business Link return to this style of working it may well be better to look at alternatives. John Warburton (24 Feb 2010) I totally agree with the previous comment - go back to basics. I also worked with BL for 9 years as both a Personal Business Adviser and a Specialist Adviser winning the National Businees Adviser of the Year in 1998. In those days we were given time to work with companies and nurture and develop them, with great success. Now it is just a numbers game, with no real help to those that could benefit from a good advisor. Geoff Link (24 Feb 2010) The issue with Business Link is that having moved to a brokerage model it no longer delivers advice and the skills of the business advisers are not being used to their full potential. They have also lost focus on which businesses they want to help. Their products are best suited to SME's that want to or have the propensity to grow. Pre-starts and new starts are better served via the enterprise agencies and incubation centres - it's a different level of guidance that is needed. What government should understand is what the customer needs are - and not gear everything around targets and outputs. If you meet customer need then you will achieve the outputs and deliver the right quality of service. It's pretty simple really - go back to basics. I am speaking as someone who worked for Business Link for ten years, and worked alongside them for the last five.
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TODAY: 5 February 2012
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