Brown's agenda: Business

ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the economic, business and employment challenges facing the Gordon Brown government.

 

Stakeholder response: KPMG

To send a comment to KPMG, click here

A KPMG spokesperson outlined five challenges for the new Brown government:

• Maintaining and further enhancing Britain’s leadership in Europe which has been so vital in promoting economic reform and co-ordinated action on the environment and tackling global poverty given the Eurosceptism of much of the press.
  
  
• Convincing the public that investment in public services has produced dividends in terms of the quality of service and outcomes while managing a soft landing for the readjustment to public spending growth levels in the summer’s CSR.
  
  
• Creating the tone, climate and confidence for most people to feel good and positive about our quality of life and unprecedented standard of living
  
  
• Promoting decency, respect and tolerance – more effective implementation of existing laws and regulations with greater community involvement – avoiding knee-jerk new legislation to be seen to be doing something.
  
  
• Ensuring the renewal of key elements of Britain’s infrastructure for environmentally sustainable growth working with the private sector – delivering on Crossrail, building the case for road charging beyond London, embracing the next generation broadband to maintain UK competitiveness for the knowledge economy.

"Prospects for the Brown government are reasonably promising. The economic environment is benign. There is a change of mood and political climate in the US that should be helpful as we become a more multi-polar world. 

"The world has – to a greater or lesser extent – embraced the UK and EU agenda on global poverty, open markets and tackling climate change. 

"But issues such as Iraq, a new European Treaty and immigration are not going to go away and Brown has to build wide and deep alliances on these issues."

 

Stakeholder response: FSB

To send a comment to the FSB, click here

An FSB spokesperson said: "As chancellor Gordon Brown often spoke of his support for entrepreneurship but the red tape burden always increased. As prime minister he has a real opportunity to lead the government down a deregulatory route. 

"For example, workers' rights can be protected in a way that is much less heavy-handed than at present.  If the number of jobs in the private sector is to be maintained or grow, this has to be a major priority for a Brown government.

"The incoming government should also resist any new tinkering with labour laws for at least a year. Small firms already spend 28 hours a month filling in forms for the government and new items are added every six months or so with changes happening to existing rules just as frequently. 

"Small businesses have no HR department and the owner-manager has to do this work, taking them away from growing the business and creating new jobs.  They need a break to get used to existing laws before any new ones are brought in.

"Continued independence of the Bank of England.  This has led to increased economic stability that the small business community greatly appreciates.  Avoiding political interference in interest rates has been a successful move that should not be reversed with new occupants at Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street.

"His new chancellor has to commit to a stable tax regime. Changes in the tax system every Budget have hindered business growth in the same way that constant tinkering with business regulation have done.  Small firms employ 12 million people, 58 per cent of the private sector workforce, and their success and growth underpins the UK economy as a whole.

"Drastic improvements in the education system are also needed.  The content of Mr Brown's Mansion House speech on June 20 was of great interest to small businesses.  Many of our members report school-leavers are unable to even grasp the basics and cannot contribute in the world of work.  If we are to continue to be a successful economy we need a skilled workforce."

 

Stakeholder Response: Working Links

To send a comment to Woking Links, click here

Working Links said: "One of the major challenges for the next prime minister will be reaching the government’s ambitious targets of an 80 per cent employment rate and an end to child poverty.

"The benefits of employment should not be underestimated. The gains to society, to communities and to individuals are huge and far reaching.

"They include fiscal savings, a more competitive economy, lower crime levels, reduction of poverty, increased self esteem, improved health, the list goes on.

"Whilst real progress has been made since 1997, through the introduction of Employment Zones and New Deal, much more needs to be done if these targets are to be met.

"The employment rate stands at just over 74 per cent and there are still 2.8 million children living in relative poverty.

"That so many children live in poverty in a country such as the UK cannot be acceptable. Research has shown that the best way to tackle child poverty is through supporting families into work.

"Not only can this have an immediate impact on family income, it can also help break the cycle of unemployment which is often passed from generation to generation.

"Of course, employment alone is not enough, people must also be helped to sustain their jobs and progress in the workplace in order to move away from benefit dependency and out of poverty.

"We therefore welcome the recent report by David Freud which makes a real contribution to the debate about how best to support people into employment.

"Amongst his recommendations are the provision of individually tailored support to individuals, regardless of their benefit status or perceived barriers, increased rights and responsibilities for claimants, longer periods of in work support, a simplification of the benefit system and an increased role for the private and voluntary sectors.

"We are broadly supportive of these recommendations and believe that the devil is now in the detail.

"The Department for Work and Pensions is currently consulting widely and working hard to determine how the report is best taken forward.

"If carried out in the right way, we believe these steps could be hugely significant in helping many more people back into work and we are not alone in thinking so.

"Freud’s report has received cross party support with all three main parties agreeing that it is not a question of if but how Freud is implemented.

"Recent rumours that the Treasury does not intend to support these plans are hopefully unfounded or out of date.

"If, as we can only assume, Gordon Brown is set to take the reigns of government, we sincerely hope that he will indeed back these proposals and support their development.

"The challenge for any new prime minister will be to ensure that a change in leadership does not interrupt good policy already being developed.

"We believe that these changes could make a real difference to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society and significantly strengthen our economy.

"We hope the new leadership will have the courage to see them through."