Genesis Initiative - the future for SMEs

Small businesses have a major part to play in bringing positive economic reform in the UK, in Europe and throughout the world.

That was the message from organisations representing the small business community, academics, entrepreneurs, Members of the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group and politicians at their first National Genesis Initiative Conference at the House of Commons this week (Monday, April 28, 2003).

The focus of the conference was 'SMEs - the Force for Economic Reform' and to advocate policies to encourage the growth of SMEs and create a climate in which they can reach their full potential. Opening the conference, HRH Prince Michael of Kent described it as an opportunity for the UK to 'blue print our successes'.

Speakers representing a range of organisations gathered to build on the commitment to economic reform as agreed in the Lisbon agenda. The objective of the conference was to outline the action for delivering the best environment for small businesses to meet their full potential and take advantage of increasing opportunities from an extended Europe and global economy.

Main themes

The main themes to emerge as the Genesis Initiative firmed up its direction for the future were:

• Stability: small businesses look to Government to provide a stable environment in terms of the economy and the regulations;
  
• Regulations: small businesses recognise the need for some regulations, but they should be clear and sensible rather than a barrier or bottle-neck;
  
• Representation: while small businesses have their own focused representative groups, they do benefit from having a broader and more powerful voice, which the Genesis Initiative promotes;
  
• UK blue print: the UK has a more mature small business and freelance sector than many other countries, which makes the UK well-placed to take advantage of opportunities from an extended European market place.

Also of significance for the future was the emergence of a format to allow greater consultation and representation between the small business community and the political decision-makers.

• The All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group is the largest All Party Group in Parliament with some 441 MPs and Lords in a cross Party organisation to represent the small businesses in their constituencies or to demonstrate their commitment to small businesses.
  
• The Genesis Senate, comprising small business organisations and academics, also showed that the representative bodies have many common areas where they can come together to represent their members more effectively in a larger arena.

For freelancers

Andy White of UKTECH used the example of Section 660 - the married couple's business tax - to show that this measure would damage the very sector that the Lisbon agenda wanted to encourage - even though the Government had expressed its commitment to the knowledge based economy.

Mark Prisk MP, the Conservative Treasury spokesman, used his 'slot' to discuss freelancing. Before entering Parliament he had worked as a freelancer and recently held a seminar on the subject with UKTECH. He felt that part of his role was to try to bring practical changes which could be of benefit in the real world.

He explained to the audience that freelancers were probably the least understood part of the small business community and cited IR35 as the first example of when the political system tried to bite on them. He was committed to the need to change the perception in Whitehall about what it is to make your own way in the world and that while politicians tended to think of 'small businesses' in terms of 50 to 100 people, for the vast majority it wasn't about a business with staff, it was about the right of an individual to make his or her own way. He saw a political and legal struggle to have that concept understood and accepted.

He said that IR35 raised that problem with a lack of perception and understanding of the practicalities of the knowledge-based freelancer.

Mark Prisk said: "Wanting to be practical I tried to look at what I could do. The first thing was the Right to Be Self Employed Bill which I tried to introduce in Parliament. It would have removed the need for IR35 by establishing a clear definition. As a Private Member's Bill it did not make it to the Statute Book, but I do feel that we threw a pebble in the pond to make people think.

"The second thing was the seminar Andy White of UKTECH and I held, looking not just at the negatives but also the market opportunities. In politics it is very tempting to look at problems but we should also look for opportunities, for example with the Government's own contracts so that smaller enterprises can participate in these.

"We are also working in the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group. Although we wear different coloured political rosettes, we can all recognise that without wealth creation there wouldn't be the housing benefits, education and other services.

"In terms of practicalities, we will be closely examining the role of freelancers as the Group's next enquiry in June - looking at the regulatory, tax and legal environment for freelancing with the express aim of how we can make this country the best place for freelancing."

Programme

The Genesis Initiative National SME Conference was sponsored by HSBC; Grant Thornton; Lloyds TSB; Pelicans Manufacturing Co Ltd; Small Business Service; alldayPA; and UKTECH

The programme sessions were:

• Welcome to participants by HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Royal Patron of the Genesis Initiative. Chairman Michael Campbell DL.
  
• The Genesis Initiative - Setting the Scene: John May and Professor John Stanworth.
  
• Dennis Turner, Chief Economist UK, HSBC. Chairman The Lord Randall of St Budeaux, Chairman of the Genesis Initiative.
  
• Empowering SMEs in the UK: Nigel Griffiths, Small Business Minister (on video link). Chairman Kerry Pollard JP MP.
  
• Empowering SMEs in Europe. Herr Hans Werner Muller, General Secretary UEAPME. Chairman Lord Harrison of Chester.
  
• Access to Finance - An Overview. Prof Robert Blackburn. Chairman Nick Goulding.
  
• The Senate: The view of the organisations representing SMEs. Chairman: Khalid Aziz. Participants were representatives from Federation of Small Businesses; Institute of Directors; The Forum of Private Business; National Federation of Enterprise Agencies; Forum for the Future; and the Ethnic Minority Business Forum.
  
• The All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group - Empowering SMEs. Kerry Pollard JP MP; Mark Prisk MP; Brian Cotter MP. Chairman Lord Weatherill.
  
• The European Charter for Small Enterprises: Paula Duarte Gaspar, Administrator, Enterprise DG, The European Commission, Brussels. Chairman: Sir Stephen Wall.
  
• SMEs in the 21st Century - Reuben Singh, alldayPA.com, Chairman of the Genesis Patrons Enterprise Club. Chairman: Mark Prisk MP
  
• Empowering SMEs through Information Technology. Andy White - UKTECH.
  
• Open Forum on Economic Reform: Chairman John May FCA.