The Business Lounge examines whether the Government’s latest Enterprise Strategy offers any real reasons to be cheerful.

The Strategy identifies fives areas, or “enablers” required to promote enterprise. If you would like to read all the details, then visit the website of the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform at www.berr.gov.uk. Alternatively, read our helpful summary of some of the more interesting policies in these categories.

• A culture of enterprise

Plans include continuing Enterprise Week, first run in 2004 and aimed at promoting enterprise to young people (14-30 year olds). There are also proposals which will allow some discretion in relation to Insolvency Rules, regarding the publicity following a business failure, aimed at reducing embarrassment in this area. Particular campaigns will be aimed at women and the over 50s respectively. Men in their 30s and 40s might feel left out, and might not be convinced that the proposal to work with the Premier League would bridge this gap.

• Knowledge and skills

This will include business-to-business mentoring; improvements to the Business Link service; skills support for women; helping employers meet the skills needs in their workforce, and enterprise education starting in primary, not just secondary, schools.

• Access to finance

A couple of the proposals in this area made it into the Chancellor’s Budget speech, namely boosting of the Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme, to which increase lending has been allocated for one year, and which now allows older businesses (over five years old) with growth ambitions, to benefit. Also, an extra £30 million has been allocated to an Enterprise Capital Fund, and £12.5 million specifically for women-led businesses, with increasing networking support promised in this area. Greater support will be encouraged from the British Business Angels Association, and there is proposed new good-practice guidance on debt recovery.

• Regulatory framework

We understand that Government departments will be set regulatory budgets when introducing new frameworks, limiting the cost of these to small businesses. We are also told of proposals to exempt small businesses from some new and existing regulation, but we would definitely wait to see what this really means before getting too excited.

While researching this area of enterprise promotion, The Business Lounge was rather surprised to read the following proposal which comes under this category of reducing the regulatory burden for small businesses; plans are to “improve passenger experience at UK major airports, particularly Heathrow”. Being cynical, is this to allow some of the enterprise budget to be used in transport?

• Business innovation

Other very specific policies which may be of interest include a review of broadband in order to ensure that UK businesses enjoy the most advanced communications; a national network of university enterprise clusters; training on intellectual property management, and innovation vouchers to buy knowledge and expertise.

All talk and no action?

There is, of course, the question whether all this talk will amount to much. Well, The Business Lounge will never be negative about plans to help small businesses form and get off the ground. We would have to agree from our own experience that the UK culture is not one of enterprise, especially starting with education, and the tendency to push intelligent pupils down formal academic routes. Culture is hard to change, but that should be no reason not to try. Small businesses particularly need to see tax reliefs such as the enterpreneur’s relief in the recent changes to capital gains tax, but without the constant fight to get these.

As always, we welcome our readers’ comments, and invite you to take part in our poll asking what prevents potential entrepreneurs from setting up businesses.

As with all our information in The Business Lounge, this is not comprehensive bueiness advice, and may not apply to your specific circumstances; to discuss how these issues affect you, contact your accountant.