March and April seems to have been a busy month for the publication of a range of papers relevant to community based enterprise.
First we had the Enterprise White Paper – more spelling mistakes than original ideas – what a disapointment – or have I missed something? Supposed highlights include:
- Improving access to finance for SME’s (now where have I heard that before?)
- A consultation on the introduction of regulatory budgets, which would cap the new annually recurring cost of regulation for business, including whether to pilot this approach on SME’s or a particular sector;
- Increased focus in minimising the impact of regulation on SME’s (ditto)
- Independent review of regulatory guidance (ditto)
- Further development of enterprise education on secondary schools and extension of it, where possible, into primary and further education (underpinned by a £210 million funding package, as agreed at the 2007 CSR); and
- Establishment of a National Enterprise Academy (NEA)
Then we had a report from the New Economics Foundation ‘Hitting the Target. Missing the Point: How government regeneration targets fail deprived areas. This new research from nef, evaluates the impact of one of the government’s flagship programmes: the ‘Local Enterprise Growth Initiative’ (LEGI), suggesting that investment has not been targeted at the places where it would have the most impact because it has not been supported by robust measurement. This one is still on my reading list!
Finally there has been an interesting publication from London Based Community Links
– Self-employed and micro-entrepreneurs: Informal trading and the journey towards formalisation which must be of relevance to anyone working in community enterprise.
Please do let me know what you make of these reports, especially if you find that any of them have a positive impact on your practice.