The Conservatives appear to be committed to abolishing the regional elements of Business Link in its general election manifesto launched today.
Included in the 130-page document, unveiled at Battersea Power Station, are plans to create "business-led enterprise partnerships" run by local councils and businesses rather than Regional Development Agencies which currently look after regional Business Link services.
The plan back-ups the words of shadow business secretary Mark Prisk who in February said the "regional Business Links are failing in their task". He promised an expansion of the enterprise agencies network financed by the government offering to match funding for three years with the other half of the money provided by councils and chambers of commerce.
Among the other small business-related pledges included in the manifesto are a promise to reduce the number of forms required to set up a new business, the abolition of Employers National Insurance for any new business on the first 10 employees it hires during its first year and the cutting of the small companies' rate of corporation tax to 20p.
The Tories also pledged to publish all open up more public sector contracts to small businesses by publishing all government tender documents worth over £10,000 on the Supply2Gov website and by breaking up large ICT projects into smaller components.
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