“Business will welcome government attempts to provide it with greater certainty and prioritise how it invest its resources. However, this must be rooted in a robust analysis of which technologies will generate the greatest future opportunities and, in which the UK has the greatest potential.
“In addition, government must now show the same sense of clarity and purpose to develop a vision for the economy overall to help any business looking to invest and grow.”
On proposals for a British Investment Bank Terry Scuoler said:
“Government must do everything it can to encourage the financial sector to better support business investment. This means raising the level of competition within the Banking sector and developing a range of alternatives to Bank finance.
“Targeting assistance to challenger banks, if it can be done, will be positive as will consolidating the plethora of government finance support schemes under a single agency with a strong mandate for promotion. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves this will be the full answer on access to finance.”
“We need more entrants into the SME banking market, one of the most concentrated banking markets in the UK, as well as greater ease for businesses to switch between banks. We also need more alternative forms of lending. The objective must be a finance landscape that supports higher investment in the UK without leaving the taxpayer stranded with all the cost and all the risk.’
On Employee Ownership Pilots, Terry Scuoler, said:
“Government is finally getting on with delivering what business has been seeking for years, namely a simpler skills system which puts funding in the hands of customers. The Employee Ownership Pilots on skills are a good first step and we urge the government to push on with rolling this out across the economy.
“To build on this there is much more to do to make it easier to invest in apprenticeships and to ensure our education system is generating sufficient numbers of young people with the right skills.
On Procurement, Terry Scuoler, said:
“Government has made a start in some areas in taking a more strategic approach to public procurement which will help more UK-based companies to take advantage of these opportunities. It is vital now that this approach is rolled out across the whole of government.
ENDS