After the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s promise of ‘help for the high street’ in his 2013 Autumn Statement, the government published guidance on 7 December concerning the ‘GREAT Ambition’, a programme committed to helping UK small businesses grow and prosper. The government hopes the GREAT Ambition programme can foster the UK’s entrepreneurial spirit that spurred the creation of almost 500,000 new businesses in 2012.
To help these ambitious new businesses grow, the government committed to the following initiatives as part of the GREAT Ambition scheme:
Make it easier to finance business growth by:
• Rebuilding a banking sector which works for small businesses.
• Helping businesses access non-bank lending and private equity.
• Tackling late payments from the public sector.
• Cutting taxes and extending the Small Business Rate Relief until April 2015.
Make it easier to hire people by:
• Simplifying the hiring process by providing Universal Jobmatch, a free online system for matching candidates to jobs. Universal Jobmatch is located at www.gov.uk/jobsearch.
• Equipping the workforce with the right skills by building new University Technical Colleges.
Make it easier to develop new ideas and break into new markets by:
• Increasing grant funding to help the development of new ideas.
• Modernising and simplifying intellectual property law to help protect ideas.
• Boosting business’ online presence with a broadband voucher scheme to defray the cost of installing high-speed broadband.
• Providing export advice and support via UK Trade and Investment at www.ukti.gov.uk.
Visit GREAT Britain at www.greatbusiness.gov.uk to learn more.
