The first Enterprise Agencies came into being in the late 1970's but really took of following the famous Sunningdale Conference in early 1980. So like me they have been around for about ten years. In that time they have grown in number from six to over three hundred. There is still only one of me, though on occasions I could do with a few extra [end p1] pairs of hands.
My ten years in office were naturally a time for reflection. I was often asked what was my greatest disappointment. I suppose it was that it took so long to turn the economy round. Fortunately, we had the patience and the confidence that what we were doing was [end p2] right to give our policies time to produce results. Invitations to turn back were ten a penny in those days, but in the end it has begun to come good.
Though one feared that the spirit of enterprise might have been lost altogether we can now see that it has survived, wanting only confidence and the right conditions to [end p3] flower again.
Most satisfying is that the strengthening of the economy which first became visible in the South East is now clearly happening in the regions and the inner cities.
Take Docklands where we now are. Five years ago the problem was that we could not get people to come here. Now [end p4] Docklands has a different problem. So many people want to come here that it is difficult to get them all in and out. But that is a problem which we will also solve.
There has been a change of focus here. When we started, we were clearing dereliction, doing no more than making good the ravages of the past. [end p5] As can be seen from this splendid new arena we are now moving forward, building assets for the future.
But it is not just in Docklands that a recovery can be seen. Recently I visited the North East and the North West. I was tremendously heartened by what I saw. [end p6] In Newcastle there was a marvellous sense of optimism, confidence and vitality among businessmen. I was enormously impressed by the resurgence all along the Tyne River front which the vigorous Urban Development Corporation and the private sector together were bringing about. Their plans are ambitious but well considered and they are beginning to [end p7] happen. I was invited back when the work is complete and I have this feeling I shall be able to take up that invitation sooner rather than later. It may have been the bracing climate of the Tyne in early March but I left Newcastle and Gateshead exhilarated and uplifted by what I had seen of the revival of business and the spirit of the North [end p8] East.
In the afternoon I went to Liverpool which I had last visited in 1984. Even then there were signs of recovery—in the recovery of the Garden Festival site, the Wavertree Technology Park and the Albert Dock. When I returned in 1989 these were no longer just two or three cases of revival: [end p9] I saw at the Brunswick Enterprise Centre managed workspace for small businesses, all of which was taken virtually from the day the Centre opened; I saw one of the most advanced computer centres in this country which will attract and retain the sort of skilled and professional people that the inner city economy needs for a sustained revival. Above all I saw the determination and [end p10] leadership provided by a number of courageous individuals on the ground—people like Tony McGann of the Eldonian Housing Project who has overcome local indifference or even hostility to create a warm and decent community in the middle of Liverpool on what used to be among the worst of derelict land.
What has brought all these changes about? [end p11]
Obviously economic policies have to be right at the national level. Nothing has done more to improve the position in the inner cities and the regions than the fall in unemployment. Over the past year:
— it has fallen by over half a million (529,000) for the country as a whole [end p12]
— long term unemployment is down by 285,000
— unemployment among young people is down by around 170,000—it has fallen in every region of the country. Indeed the fall has been larger in the regions other than the South East. It is down by over one fifth in the inner cities. [end p13]
Also important to get the structures right. Following the success of London and Merseyside, a further nine UDCs have been set up, cutting through all the red tape and the petty jealousies of the competing local authorities. We have set up twenty-seven enterprise zones. Regional incentives have been revamped so that they no longer pay for large capital [end p14] projects which would have been built anyway but are now targeting help with an emphasis on the number of jobs created.
Also essential to bring in the large investors. Big manufacturers like the Nissans and the Boschs; big developers like the Rosehaughs, and the Olympia and Yorks are all vital. But the missing ingredient is people. [end p15] The greatest hurt suffered by inner cities was not physical dereliction but the dereliction of spirit. Business leaders departed to the leafy suburbs; for those remaining a culture of dependency grew up.
But all this is now changing, and changing fast. This is due to people like you. [end p16] One of the most heartening changes is in the attitude of young people. No longer are they constrained by the stereotype of a salaried job, and too often in the public sector. They are seeing the attraction of being self-employed, the dream of owning their own business.
We all know that starting a business can be [end p17] perilous. It is daunting and often lonely. The support which the Enterprise Agencies can give is vital:
— providing expert advice
— providing support and encouragement
— and sometimes providing finance. The evidence of the increase in [end p18] self-employment and the number of new businesses being created is most impressive. Self employment is up by one million over the past decade. An increase of 60 per cent. Business start ups, net of liquidations, are running at about 1,300 a week. For this much of the credit is due to you. [end p19] Therefore I say a very special thank you to: — those 5,000 companies who support enterprise agencies — to those who work in them, many seconded from large organisations The Enterprise Agency Movement is undoubtedly one of the successes of modern [end p20] Britain, and Enterprise Day is rightly an occasion for celebration and congratulation.
But it is also an occasion for looking forward. Each success brings confidence that more can be done. The establishment of the Training and Enterprise Councils will be a watershed. The Government is saying to business [end p21] leaders:
“You know what needs doing in your locality to promote business and enterprise; and what training needs to be done. Here are the means. Get on and do it.”
The response has been very encouraging, because it is tapping the same vein, of [end p22] communities helping themselves, which have made Enterprise Agencies such a success.
Much of the work of helping small businesses, of putting the E into TECs (pronounced TEX) will be delegated to local enterprise agencies. They will need the support of established firms more than ever. [end p23]
I therefore welcome the launch today of the campaign, “Enterprise Works” , which seeks to boost private sector sponsorship; and of the setting up of the National Enterprise Team, under the chairmanship of Kit McMahon, which will spearhead this. We are all very grateful to the Midland Bank for its sponsorship.
The co-operation between Government and [end p24] business, and between companies large and small, will ensure that the enterprise culture becomes ever more firmly entrenched.