Alistair Darling, Trade and Industry secretary, told the FT that the Small Business Service (SBS) 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.” A “lot of” the £150m in business support directly administered by the SBS will be transferred to regional development agencies, he said.

The SBS has been the subject of considerable criticism in recent months from the National Audit Office, the British Chamber of Commerce and the Forum for Private Business. The Conservative Party also recently announced a complete review of the £2.6 billion "maze" of Government business support schemes and quangos.

In an interview with the FT, Mr Darling said the shake-up of the agency was part of a broader drive to make business support less complex and easier to access.

The DTI has been reviewing the area over the summer, following the Chancellor's pledge in the last Budget to cull the number of business support schemes from 3,000 to fewer than 100.

The latest review is part of an attempt to simplify the labyrinthine system provided by a mix of Whitehall and regional bodies, including 265 programmes administered by 15 departments.

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

Further information
Related articles:

• Tories review small business schemes - Hardhatter, Sept 2006
• Axes should fall on SBS - Shout99, Aug 2006
• SBS was set up to fail - Shout99, May 2006
• Small firms agency misses the mark (NAO) - Shout99, May 2006