This is not the first nail in the SBS's coffin. The Forum for Private Business claimed it 'was set up to fail' after the National Audit Office (NAO) issued a damning report which said the Government had little idea of impact of the £2.6 billion a year the SBS spends supporting small business

Failure and underperformance
Research conducted by the BCC tells the full story of failure and underperformance at the SBS. The SBS is responsible for delivering the Government’s action plan for small business under seven themes, but for six of these, according to the BCC, firms believe the SBS has proved virtually ineffective:

1. Building an enterprise culture: 83 per cent of businesses have seen no improvement and almost a quarter (24 per cent) have seen a decline in the UK’s enterprise environment;

2. Encouraging a more dynamic start-up market: nearly nine out of ten businesses (86 per cent) do not feel that a more dynamic start-up market has been encouraged and of these, nearly a third believe that the start-up market has worsened. Of those who have used publicly-funded business support, only four in ten businesses thought it was relevant to the needs of their business;

3. Building the capability for small business growth: over half of businesses (53 per cent) think that the capability for small business growth has stayed the same, whilst a third (34 per cent) think it has worsened;

4. Improving access to finance for small business growth: more than four out of five businesses (83 per cent) do not believe that it has got easier for small businesses to access finance for growth and a third believe it has become more difficult;

5. Encouraging more enterprise in disadvantaged communities and under-represented groups: this is the single area where businesses have seen a noticeable improvement as 30 per cent of firms believe that enterprise in disadvantaged communities and amongst under-represented groups has been encouraged, resulting in tangible improvements;

6. Improving small businesses’ experience of government services: of the seven action points, this has one of the worst results with 90 per cent of businesses seeing no improvement in their use of government services, with two out of five saying their experience of government services had worsened;

7. Developing better regulation and policy: the worst performing action point of the seven with 93 per cent of businesses seeing no improvement in regulation and policy and over half (52 per cent) believing that it has deteriorated.

Time to end
Mr. Frost said: "It is time to end the cycle of failure and underachievement in supporting small businesses: the SBS does not carry the necessary weight in government to achieve tangible improvements. The conclusion to be drawn from these findings is that businesses’ experience of efforts to help them is not what it should be and radical reform is required.

"Businesses must be able to have confidence in the quality of the support offered to them and know that their needs are given due weight within government. Looking to the long-term, we need to develop regional and local solutions that are business-driven and business-led."

Further information
For more information see:
SBS was set up to fail - Shout99, May 2006
Small firms agency misses the mark - Shout99, May 2006
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Susie Hughes
The Editor © Hardhatter 2006