By David Williams
1 November 2010
The government today published plans to increase support for small businesses and make it easier for them to compete for public sector contracts.
Ministers from the Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills set out their proposals in Backing small business. The aim is to make it easier to start up ventures, to access finance and to do business with the government.
The document states: ‘Too many of these businesses have been locked out due to poor information, bureaucratic barriers and a false assumption that big is always better and cheaper.’
Official figures show that the public sector as a whole spends £236bn a year on contracts with private firms. Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the government would introduce a set of measures to ensure that 25% of government deals were signed with small and medium-sized enterprises.
Whitehall departments will be required to publish their procurement deals and data on how many contracts go to SMEs. Companies bidding for government work will also be given a simplified questionnaire, in an effort to cut bureaucracy for suppliers. Although this approach will initially be confined to central government, ministers have said they will investigate using it in the NHS and local government.
Maude said ministers would also consider adopting new, more open purchasing systems.
‘We believe small businesses and social enterprises have a vital role to play in the growth of the UK economy, and we are committed to making it easier for these organisations to compete for government business.
‘Today’s package of measures will help to remove the barriers many small businesses face, and eliminate complexities and waste in the procurement process.’
Prime Minister David Cameron also appointed Lord Young as enterprise adviser. His role is to encourage more start-ups, reduce the burden on business, and create opportunities for the SME sector to win government contracts.
Cameron said he was ‘seeking nothing less than a wholesale change in attitude from my government’ to small businesses.
