Many small businesses in North Wales would have been disappointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last Wednesday, as he continued with his plans to change the capital gains tax regime and ignored pleas not to raise the level of corporation tax for small firms.
To compensate for this financial hit, he introduced a raft of enterprise-friendly ‘soft’ policies to allegedly support small firms and to create a culture of enterprise.
For example, the UK Government is to create a capital fund of initially £12.5 million to specifically encourage more women entrepreneurs, is establishing a National Enterprise Academy offering skills training and qualifications to 16 to 19-year-olds, is providing specific support for young entrepreneurs and the over 50s and is introducing a set of detailed measures promoting business mentoring, work placements, skills training, improved careers advice on self-employment and access to business support.
Of course, none of these measures will apply to Wales as support for enterprise is a devolved matter, so Welsh entrepreneurs will get no support whatsoever from any of these measures whilst being hit for increased capital gains and corporation tax.
One could argue that is the price of devolution.
However, the biggest tragedy of all is that Wales actually did use our devolved powers in economic development to put such programmes into place in 1999 when it created the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
Overnight, we became leaders in supporting enterprise and created a vision of “a bold and confident nation where entrepreneurship is valued, celebrated and exercised throughout society and in the widest range of economic circumstances”.
Utilising a combination of European, public and private sector funds, the business led steering group committed over £70 million during the period 2000-2006 to develop key projects to improve the enterprise culture within Wales. Ironically, given the Chancellor’s current focus on women-led businesses, these included successful initiatives such as Women's Enterprise Wales which helped to boost female entrepreneurship in Wales to the stage where we were amongst the best in the world.
You may find it hard to believe but whilst the Chancellor is pouring tens of millions into supporting entrepreneurship in England, there is no longer an Entrepreneurship Action Plan for Wales, even though it was created to last a generation and not just a few years. Most of the programmes it supported have lost their funding and are unlikely to be rekindled by any of the organisations previously involved.
Whilst the rest of the UK was slowly waking up to the economic potential of entrepreneurship, we had the policy equivalent of a 30 point lead at half time against the All Blacks. Yet through a combination of ministerial prejudice and policy ignorance, it would seem we have thrown that lead away and destroyed all that good work that was undertaken in a genuine partnership between the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the economy, and given the fact that Wales is bottom of the UK prosperity league table and has some of the poorest areas in the whole of Europe, it makes no sense whatsoever not to have a coherent strategy to support the wealth creators in the economy, especially if our competitors across the border are doing so.
It is not late and if we reengage with the vision of the original Entrepreneurship Action, we can still develop an environment which promotes, celebrates and rewards enterprise and, more importantly, creates wealth across the nation.
To compensate for this financial hit, he introduced a raft of enterprise-friendly ‘soft’ policies to allegedly support small firms and to create a culture of enterprise.
For example, the UK Government is to create a capital fund of initially £12.5 million to specifically encourage more women entrepreneurs, is establishing a National Enterprise Academy offering skills training and qualifications to 16 to 19-year-olds, is providing specific support for young entrepreneurs and the over 50s and is introducing a set of detailed measures promoting business mentoring, work placements, skills training, improved careers advice on self-employment and access to business support.
Of course, none of these measures will apply to Wales as support for enterprise is a devolved matter, so Welsh entrepreneurs will get no support whatsoever from any of these measures whilst being hit for increased capital gains and corporation tax.
One could argue that is the price of devolution.
However, the biggest tragedy of all is that Wales actually did use our devolved powers in economic development to put such programmes into place in 1999 when it created the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
Overnight, we became leaders in supporting enterprise and created a vision of “a bold and confident nation where entrepreneurship is valued, celebrated and exercised throughout society and in the widest range of economic circumstances”.
Utilising a combination of European, public and private sector funds, the business led steering group committed over £70 million during the period 2000-2006 to develop key projects to improve the enterprise culture within Wales. Ironically, given the Chancellor’s current focus on women-led businesses, these included successful initiatives such as Women's Enterprise Wales which helped to boost female entrepreneurship in Wales to the stage where we were amongst the best in the world.
You may find it hard to believe but whilst the Chancellor is pouring tens of millions into supporting entrepreneurship in England, there is no longer an Entrepreneurship Action Plan for Wales, even though it was created to last a generation and not just a few years. Most of the programmes it supported have lost their funding and are unlikely to be rekindled by any of the organisations previously involved.
Whilst the rest of the UK was slowly waking up to the economic potential of entrepreneurship, we had the policy equivalent of a 30 point lead at half time against the All Blacks. Yet through a combination of ministerial prejudice and policy ignorance, it would seem we have thrown that lead away and destroyed all that good work that was undertaken in a genuine partnership between the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the economy, and given the fact that Wales is bottom of the UK prosperity league table and has some of the poorest areas in the whole of Europe, it makes no sense whatsoever not to have a coherent strategy to support the wealth creators in the economy, especially if our competitors across the border are doing so.
It is not late and if we reengage with the vision of the original Entrepreneurship Action, we can still develop an environment which promotes, celebrates and rewards enterprise and, more importantly, creates wealth across the nation.
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