Brexit will leave ‘a business support black hole,’ says report

Ivan Annibal — Wed, 10 May 2017 19:46:18 +0000

I sympathise with the value of supporting businesses but: in my view, as someone who has worked in economic development for 30 years – the way many of these schemes are run provides funding for the usual suspects. It often pays big fees to the intermediaries many of which are private businesses for distributing the funding and focuses too much on backing businesses that can look after themselves and not the micro-business in rural communities where modest but unglamorous hard work by Business Advisers could make a major contribution to rural sustainability. Sometimes when everything is thrown up in the air, and Brexit will have that impact here, there is an opportunity for a fundamental rethink. The current targeting and management of business support is one such area ripe for such a re-think The article tells us;

Eight in 10 SMEs have sought business support services over the past 12 months, according to a report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). With £3.6bn of dedicated small business support coming from the EU (between 2014 and 2020) the UK must fill the shortfall to prevent economic slowdown after Brexit.

In addition, the UK government has not budgeted for a regional development fund beyond 2021. Mike Cherry, national chair of the FSB, said: “Small businesses across the country are staring into a business support black hole from 2021. This is a particularly pressing issue for the many small firms with growth ambitions and those in less economically developed regions.”

The government’s commitment to an industrial strategy that supports all regions cannot be delivered without new ways of supporting regional economic growth, says the report, Reformed Business Funding: what small firms want from Brexit.

Businesses in Northern Ireland (32%), Wales (26%) and Yorkshire (25%) were most likely to apply for EU-funded schemes, according to the report. Most applicants (68%) said that EU funding had a positive impact on their business, and (64%) said it had a positive impact on the local area.

Defra awards £19 million to help rural businesses

Ivan Annibal — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 21:06:09 +0000

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has announced more than 2,500 rural businesses will receive a share of £19 million of government funding via the Farming and Forestry Improvement Scheme (FFIS), part of the Rural Development Programme for England. Mr Paterson described how “Small businesses are the cornerstone of the rural economy, supporting local jobs, people and entire communities. That’s why the government is awarding [funding to] farming and forestry businesses to enable them to thrive as part of our long-term economic plan”. The piece contains regional case studies taken from Yorkshire, East of England, North East, North West, Midlands, South East and South West.

Business Support – Hinterland

Brexit will leave ‘a business support black hole,’ says report

Defra awards £19 million to help rural businesses