Within the government’s new Industrial Strategy proposals there is a strong emphasis on the importance of SMEs to Britain’s future.
There are a number of proposals in the governments recently published green paper on Industrial strategy that are of particular interest to SMEs. Among these are the rolling out of a “balanced scorecard” across all major construction, infrastructure and capital investment projects over £10M. This scorecard will ensure that the impact of the procurement on the growth of skills, apprenticeships and small businesses is taken into account when considering the value for money of different bids.
The government is proposing to increase the scope of the Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) mechanism which supports the transfer of ideas developed in the UK’s university sector into small local businesses through collaborations and placements.
The paper also re-confirms the government’s commitment to reducing red-tape and regulation on businesses to deliver savings of £10 Bn during the current parliament. The burden of this falls disproportionately on small businesses and so this initiative will help them to compete.
Of particular interest to Indigo& is the commitment to improving government procurement and in particular to create more opportunities for SMEs. This is where we aim to help the government with our own services and support the move to reduce the bureaucracy in the tendering process and to enable SMEs to make up one third of the government’s supply chain.