Enterprise Zones are places where a different set of rules apply to business. \u00a0Inside the Enterprise Zone businesses\u00a0get:<\/p>\n
Enterprise zones will be pockets of the country where the usual rules that govern the relationships between business and society are bent to the advantage of business. \u00a0Business will get\u00a0enhanced\u00a0public services in the area, and they will pay less for them. Their operating costs will be reduced.\u00a0\u00a0It will be those of us who neither live nor work in an enterprise zone who will pay. \u00a0We will be relying on Enterprise zones ‘work’ (on their own\u00a0purely\u00a0economic terms) when they are able to attract more investment. \u00a0They attract more investment by reducing the risks and \u00a0increasing the rewards for the investors. \u00a0We\u00a0subsidise\u00a0those investments.<\/p>\n Interestingly the Government is reported to have said that it does not\u00a0want\u00a0Enterprise Zones to be about remedying local dereliction but about economic growth. \u00a0This is about making public investment where the return on that investment, measured in economic terms, are\u00a0likely\u00a0to be greatest. \u00a0This\u00a0means\u00a0that it is\u00a0likely\u00a0to be an investment in already strong economies, helping them to become stronger.<\/p>\n In an alternative LEP I\u00a0think\u00a0the logic may run a little differently. I\u00a0think\u00a0we may question the wisdom of zoning, and instead prefer to think about how we can improve the preconditions of enterprise for all.<\/p>\n We would also make sure that we did nothing that was going to further benefit big business while doing little to help the small businesses that are increasingly the mainstay of our economy.<\/p>\n I\u00a0think\u00a0we would think twice before easing planning requirements in certain zones. \u00a0Either we have got the planning process right in holding the balance between\u00a0environment\u00a0and business or we haven’t. \u00a0Or perhaps we should devolve more powers of planning and taxation to the\u00a0local\u00a0level so that those who will really be impacted\u00a0can\u00a0have a say?<\/p>\n We would recognise that enterprise is expressed in many different voices, not just the voice of business. \u00a0We might be interested in setting up a ‘social enterprise zone’. \u00a0An area where enterprise is encouraged\u00a0because\u00a0of its positive impact on society, not just on the economy. \u00a0The mantra might be, ‘yes please make some money if you wish, but make something much more interesting as well, please….’<\/p>\n I think we might question trickle down theory that says ‘a strong economy produces strong public services which in turn produce a strong society’. \u00a0While it is true that ‘a rising tide lifts all ships’, in a ‘rising’ economy some people rise much further and much faster than others. \u00a0And when the economy sinks, well not all hands sailors share the same risk.<\/p>\n I suspect we would think much more deeply about the psychology of enterprise, the mental barriers to acting boldly in pursuit of dreams, rather than how we can change fiscal and planning policy to encourage those who are already doing it to do it more profitably. \u00a0How do we change the psychological landscape so that many more individuals take\u00a0responsibility\u00a0for their own lives? \u00a0That they feel that it is possible for them to make progress, without waiting for a benevolent employer to come along and offer them a job.<\/p>\n I suspect we would seriously consider the impact of a traditional enterprise zone on its neighbours. \u00a0Displacing jobs is not the same as creating as them after all.<\/p>\nthe ‘trickle down fairy’<\/del>, \u00a0trickle down economics<\/a> to ensure that we all share the\u00a0success\u00a0of those who can afford to invest in an enterprise zone.<\/p>\nSo how might things be different with some #altlep thinking?<\/h2>\n