Hewitt pledges DTI shake-up to put small business first

Patricia Hewitt - the newly appointed Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, has announced details of her plans to drive forward the Government's 'Productivity in the UK: Enterprise and the Productivity Challenge' initiative to support entrepreneurs and remove unnecessary barriers to enterprise.

In a bid to create an 'enterprise economy' in the UK, Hewitt has announced that the DTI will need to review its existing system of operation and put the needs of small businesses first. Primary targets she has set out so far include:

• Improving links between business and technological advances;
  
• Modernising the UK business infrastructure;
  
• Promoting and championing the enterprise economy by creating a regulatory framework to remove unnecessary barriers to enterprise;
  
• Delivering first-rate business support in simpler and more effective ways.

The proposed departmental review will, according to Hewitt, 'involve extensive consultation with staff, businesses and other stakeholders in the process of change and will be overseen by a team of Ministers and senior civil servants.'

Speaking of the need to restructure the department, the former Minister for Small Business and E-Commerce, said:

"Just as the business world is changing fast to meet huge challenges, so the DTI must change and adapt in order to realise our mission to help UK firms get to the future first.

"If we are to succeed in our aim of making the UK one of the best places in the world to do business, we must have the right policies and practices in place to help businesses turn new and innovative ideas and technology into prosperity and jobs. We must move from an industrial base to a knowledge-driven economy."

Hewitt also announced she wanted the DTI to play a more active role in 'promoting the E-Commerce revolution,' a signal that she has brought the responsibilities of her former position as the E-Commerce Minister with her, following the re-shuffle. The findings of the DTI review are expected to be released in the Autumn.

Additionally, Chancellor Gordon Brown launched the 'Enterprise and Productivity Challenge' to 'boost the levels of productivity in the UK business community to those comparable to Britain's main rivals in the US and continental Europe.'

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Richard Powell, UKTECH