CALL ME “MR” CYNICAL

I make no apologies for the fact that I may appear to be occasionally cynical. It stems from a well deserved right based on my age, thirty years self employment and having spent ten years lobbying, standing up for the rights of small businesses to survive.

It is a healthy cynicism, indeed it is a collaborative and entirely supportive approach in attempting to understand just what is going on in the world of politics with its new thinking and sweeping away of old orders to bring in the new. If I put a question that is mildly challenging, just as I would throw a stone into a pond, I see the ripples as a radar system for measuring the answer, and if, as one of my old tutors told me, attack is the best form of defence, I use that to judge the substance of response.

Having spent many hundreds of hours over the last ten years sitting in consultation with government as a business representative and  having driven hundreds of miles to those meetings, to see initiative after initiative literally thrown away or replaced by the latest adaptation, I believe that may be the root of some of my cynical tendencies. The work we did in the Regional Assembly, an interesting but costly experiment in collaboration created by the democratically elected – now merely dismissed as unwanted regionalism. The South East Plan, the spatial strategies, the myriad of consultative groups on education, skills, business support, broadband provision, infrastructure and the rest all binned. And where has it got us?

Local Enterprise Partnerships. Now it’s Localism, the latest and most urgent task upon which to dwell, something that the latest government has created and the latest in a long line of thought provoking tests of thinking, seeking the appropriate solution for us to build the latest round of initiatives on. Am I cynical? Yes. Am I hopeful, will I put in yet more hours in collaboration and in workshops and responses? Yes. All across the country our FSB colleagues are gathering a head of steam working on this new opportunity. Many of the reports coming back indicate a complete disarray amongst the local authorities and a very varied approach to the inclusion of business.

This time, we have a Prime Minister that has clearly set out, albeit a sketchy agenda for a brave new world of collaboration focused on the explicit value of the business community. The cynic shouts out that government has not thought anything through and has been too quick to dismantle old structures. The pragmatist comes through helpfully pointing out that we may need a little more pain to build something bold and solid.

The Kent Economic Board (KEB) met to examine the LEP potential. The questions were put – fundamentally what is it we need? We already know those answers, nothing has changed over the last 12 months other than the country is a great deal poorer, what we have to find now is the way of generating a solution which ultimately includes bidding for part of a pot of money Government is putting up. The end goal is greater profitability and stability of the business sector generating growth, jobs and a strong return to the Exchequer’s coffers.

We have had the benefit of the KEB and the Kent Partnership for a number of years that has enabled the county to bring together a diverse group to discuss the county’s needs and aspirations. Everything is in place for the creation of the LEP. Compared to the situation many of my FSB colleagues find themselves in around the country, we are streets ahead and should applaud that fact. What is different this time is the suggestion from Government that the LEP be equal business and political in its composition and it suggests that business will have the ability to make decisions and expect a reasonable level of implementation. The test will be for the democratically elected to work within that scenario. After all there is a partnership already in existence – business creates the wealth – they spend it.

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