Today's Sunday Times carries a story by Rachel Bridge that explains how an incoming Conservative government plan to zap Business Link. Instead they plan to increase funding to Enterprise Agencies and let them get on with the job. The problem with Business Link says Mark Prisk, the most likely contender for the role of Small Business minister, is that Business Link spend £190m pa pointing people towards sources of help, rather than helping people solve their problems themselves.
It's good news for the Enterprise Agency movement, who in my experience are far more passionate about enterprise than Business Link. But are Business Link really so bad they need to disappear? I think not. Instead of getting rid of the good ones as well as the bad, why not give them three years to become self funding. Give them the freedom to follow their market and the flexibility to build local partnerships that make sense.
