What is business support?
Business support is ‘support to a business, group of businesses, organisations or to people starting or considering starting businesses.’ This includes free or subsidised advice, grants, reduced-interest loans, training and help with finding workspace. Business support helps develop entrepreneurs, businesses or organisations, while achieving broader economic, environmental or societal goals.
Simplification in the North East
Since 2003, One NorthEast has been working with a wide body of funders and stakeholders to simplify business support and make it easier for individuals, businesses and organisations to navigate their way to the support they need. Collectively, we have already demonstrated real successes, including:
- Pioneering the integration of skills and business brokerage through the Adult Skills Pilot and Train to Gain
- Developing new ways for businesses and individuals to access business support, including local access points, business intermediaries, and a ‘no wrong door’ approach
- Delivering a new regional Business Link service and embedding start up into the Business Link service from April 2007
- Aligning funding for business solutions through the North East England Investment Centre (NEEIC), which encompasses a variety of funding, with a single application process and common funding criteria.
The Business Support Simplification Programme (BSSP)
A national programme of Business Support Simplification was announced in the Government’s 2006 Budget and is managed by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). BSSP is designed to address the confusion that individuals and companies can experience with publicly-funded business support.
Building on our work to date, BSSP aims to reduce the number of business support interventions from more than 3,000 to less than 100 by 2010. To deliver this, the government has worked with RDAs, local authorities, users and other stakeholders to develop a portfolio of 18 business support products which will be introduced between now and 2010.
One NorthEast has been commissioned by BERR to lead the implementation of business support simplification in the North East, working with a wide range of partners to deliver the region’s vision.
Information will be updated on this site on a regular basis to provide key decisions and highlights.
For more information, please see the BERR website.
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