– Laura Whyte, Managing Director, Whyfield
Yesterday saw the launch of the UK Governments plan for SMES – “Backing Your Business: Our Plan for Small and Medium‑Sized Businesses”
You can view the plan here: Backing your business: our plan for small and medium sized businesses
And the one page summary, here: Backing your business one page summary
This is the long-term focus to support SMEs and included several core aims which feel like they come with an intention to strengthen the foundational knowledge and financing access for entrepreneurs across every sector.
Its aspirations are to realise just 1% growth a year, which could deliver £320 billion to the UK economy by 2030, meaning there are no wild, game changing initiatives included in the plan and it’s refreshing to see something that looks to provide benefit to every sector.
It launched less than 24 hours ago [at the time of writing] so there is a lot to digest, but a robust and modest plan for our SMEs in terms of growth, aligns with the industrial strategy’s attention to 8 key high growth areas and the more directed sector resource allocations we’ve been hearing locally and nationally.
There is a strong emphasis on SME’s being supported through their local authorities, meaning more autonomy in terms of regional business initiatives, which should enable the unique challenges of organisation in their specific areas to be addressed in a more targeted way.
For Cornwall, our current indecisiveness over joining a combined authority to increase the level of devolution power or go it alone to try and achieve the same, is going to significantly impact the funding we receive to support our 27,000 employers and 105,000 self-employed people in the county.
This is the latest strategy from the Government that makes several references to funding being unlocked by Mayoral Combined Authorities so despite the Leader of Cornwall Council saying only yesterday that we have more time to make a decision, I disagree – if we don’t make up our mind, and understand how we can access the funds outlined in this plan, our business community will suffer.
The objective is for SME’s to have better access to information, training and financing options, these will be delivered through local initiatives such as Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth Hub, British Business Bank South West, FSB, etc.
Alongside this, the Business Growth Service website was launched yesterday [August] as a central platform for business support and the new go to place for anyone looking to find assistance for their business.
Yesterday was a huge acknowledgement of the importance of private sector SME’s and as a county where 99% of our businesses fall into this category, it’s imperative we know exactly how this is going to work for us.
If you have any questions or would like to chat about this further, get in touch:
Call us: 01872 267 267
Email us: contact@whyfield.co.uk
Send us a message on WhatsApp: 0777 49 39 111
Or, connect with Laura on LinkedIn to get involved in the conversation: Laura Whyte | LinkedIn
Further links: English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: Guidance