The National Enterprise Network (NEN) is spearheading an initiative for UK-wide collaboration to ‘level-up’ Britain’s business support.
The National Enterprise Network (NEN) is spearheading an initiative for UK-wide collaboration to ‘level-up’ Britain’s business support.
The NEN, which represents more than 92,000 businesses, is bringing together Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland to work collaboratively with government and other key stakeholders as part of its Enterprise4Nations initiative.
Alex Till, NEN chair, said: “With the focus on UK shared prosperity, we want to ensure the whole of the UK levels-up on providing the business support needed to restore our country’s economic growth.
“With small businesses accounting for 50% of the country’s GDP, 50% of its growth and 75% of its innovation, we need to make the most of the UK’s enterprise culture.
“It shouldn’t be a postcode lottery as to the type and extent of support businesses get in different parts of the UK; if we want to level-up the whole of Britain, we need to work together. We shouldn’t be competitive in how we support businesses but collaborative.
“So, we are working to bring together the opportunities and best practice from other areas, look at how they support their enterprise culture to generate significant economic growth and work out how best to model support UK-wide.”
The Enterprise4Nations initiative follows concern that recent changes at national government level and a lack of government strategy on supporting growth for small businesses is creating a funding crisis for the enterprise agencies which deliver business support.
Speaking at the recent NEN Conference, Alex said: “Over the past year we have been looking at a range of issues, how we deliver and develop opportunities for those passionate about business. But when we talk to government, they are very vague about their plans for enterprise and there seems to be no plan about growth for small business.
“If we are serious about growing our economy and regenerating our high streets, there is an urgent priority for our government to ensure that there is a UK-wide strategy which enables the public and private sectors to work together to ensure the right advice and support network is in place to deliver successful outcomes for our small businesses.”
The group will be meeting again in early 2023 to discuss next steps in their partnership.
Alongside its work with the Enterprise 4 Nations, NEN is committed to working in wider partnership as a way of achieving better outcomes for its members and for the Enterprise Agency ecosystem as a whole.
It recently met with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Community Enterprise Association Ireland (CEAI) to discuss collaboration and best practice. NEN chair Alex Till and its operations director Carol Daniels joined Gary O’Meara, CEAI’s CEO and Siobhan Finn, CEAI’s national hub network organiser as well as Martin Traynor OBE, small business crown representative at the Cabinet Office at a recent conference.
