smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Following a barrage of recent criticism, Government agency the Small Business Service will be significantly reduced, says trade and industry secretary Alistair Darling in an interview with the Financial Times.

In recent times, the SBS, which aims to improve enterprise culture in the UK, has come under fire from the British Chambers of Commerce (SBS must go, says BCC), the National Audit Office (Small Business Service Criticised) and the Confederation of British Industry (Government failing small businesses).

This has resulted in Darling’s announcement in the FT that the service would be restructured to make it ‘smaller and more focused on what it can do. It will have a much smaller policy focus and a much closer tie-up with the Treasury, so the Treasury is more tied into business concerns.’ He added that ‘a lot’ of the £150 million of business support currently administered by the SBS would in future be the responsibility of the regional development agencies.

‘The totality of support needs to remain but a lot of it is needlessly complex,’ Darling said. ‘You’ve got to ask what do [the schemes] add to the greater good and the answer is often “not a lot”.’

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