Brown: Fairness and enterprise

Chancellor Gordon Brown continued his current theme of 'enterprise for all' with more needing to be done to encourage enterprise and business start-ups in the more disadvantaged areas of the UK.

Speaking at the City Growth Strategies Forum, London, he said: "A British enterprise culture is vital because for fifty years since the war there was no consensus on business and enterprise. The left has been seen as for fairness at the cost of enterprise, the right for enterprise at the cost of fairness.

"Yet we know that a pro-competition policy and pro-enterprise regime that encourages entrepreneurship genuinely open to all is a million miles away from the corporatist and anti-competition approach associated with the old left in the post war period

"But equally we must move beyond the eighties when, despite the rhetoric, not enough was done to build an enterprise culture. Too often the image of enterprise was of a closed circle with millions left out, and of a regime which talked about competition but left the competition regime largely unreformed, protecting vested interests and stifling economic dynamism.

"Instead, what we now want to see is a dynamic business culture which makes people feel that enterprise is not for an elite but potentially for them too.

"Indeed in time we can, in my view, forge a new British consensus not just around stability but around an enterprise culture that is open to all, fairness and enterprise advancing together."

Pre Budget Report

There used to be a time when Chancellors virtually took a vow of silence with regards to suggestions that they might comment on the detail of the Budget.

This was relaxed somewhat with the Pre-Budget Report in November – effectively and officially flagging up the likely announcements in the Budget the following Spring.

Now, the Chancellor has taken it one step further by giving an insight into the likely content of the Pre-Budget Report in advance of the PBR next month.

He reinforced his current mantra that his message will be 'enterprise for all' – with the emphasis on fairness.

He claimed that the latest evidence showed that the climate for small business in Britain is still robust; small business creation rates are still strong; survival rates continue to improve and, that, during a global downturn Britain has suffered less than many of our G8 competitors.

His concern, nevertheless was that the gap between Britain and the US remains high and there are still too many areas in Britain where enterprise struggles to thrive.

During the recent Party Conference, few politicians seemed to refer to 'enterprise' without adding 'fairness' in the same sentence. The specific examples were the comparatively small number of women who started their own businesses and the gap between business start-ups in the more affluent areas and those in inner cities and the more deprived areas.