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Savaged service must be replaced
Lancashire Evening Post | 9th September 2010

The doomed Business Link North West service must be replaced to provide support for the region’s small firms.

Leaders from the regional business community said alternative providers needed to plug the gap in support left by the downsizing the service.

It announced this week that it is cutting 194 staff from its 338-strong workforce including a “significant number” at its headquarters in Preston as it prepares for savage public spending cuts.

Babs Murphy, chief executive of the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said businesses in Lancashire were seeking a “more effective” way of delivering business support as part of setting up Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), which are due to replace the Northwest Development Agency from April 2012.

She said: “It has become clear that there is a need to embed a more effective way to deliver business support as part of the LEP proposals and in a way that will take advantage of the unique role and standing of Chambers of Commerce.

“With the future of Business Link appearing to be confined to a fully online web based model, we believe that there is a crucial requirement in the market for a direct business advisor-based service that is able to give proper advice and not just information, on a more cost effective basis”

North West Chambers chief executive Mick Mayor recently said he believed the national chambers network was capable of delivering business support nationwide.

Small business minister Mark Prisk has already said he expects the regional offices of Business Link to be scrapped and replaced with a single national website.

Frank McKenna, chairman of business lobbying group Downtown Preston in Business, said he feared the loss of Business Link would leave “a huge vacuum” in business support when the link goes.

He said: “The government has said it expects businesses to create the jobs to replace those going in the public sector, but then is looking to cut support for businesses.”