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South East Leads the Way in Enterprise Spirit
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The spirit of enterprise is alive and well in the Thames Valley – and that’s official. Twice as many businesses per head of population are formed in the South East than in the Tees Valley – a statistic that prompted British Chambers of Commerce Director, David Frost, to call for this entrepreneurial spirit to be nurtured outside of London and the South East.
Mr Frost was speaking at the Annual BCC Conference recently and suggested the introduction of new Enterprise Zones aimed at encouraging British entrepreneurs and discouraging the ‘dependency culture’ prevalent in much of today’s workforce. Mr Frost spoke of the 1980s Enterprise Zones introduced to counteract the decline of large scale industries in certain parts of the country. “Should we not be experimenting in areas with the very worst levels of dependency now?” he commented, “high unemployment, high levels of incapacity benefit and low levels of enterprise - with new style zones where companies that start up could be exempt not just from business rates but from Employment legislation and National Insurance contributions?” Mr Frost went on to express his frustration at problems within today’s education system, quoting a frightening statistic : 1.2 million young people are not in education, employment, or training. “The fact that half our young people are leaving school without 5 decent GCSEs is nothing short of a national disgrace” he said. He argued the case for the national reintroduction of grammar schools with a selection process at age 13. He also believes technical schools should be introduced, not only for engineering vocations but also for the IT industry: “Not a dustbin for those who are not academic, but a true high quality vocational route with academic study as part of it.” www.businessinberkshire.co.uk/directorsnews
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