Local Enterprise Agencies: Secondment (Hansard, 26 March 1986)

§ Lord Gainford
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, Business in the Community is taking the lead in encouraging an increase in secondments to local enterprise agencies from large firms. Such secondments can qualify for tax relief. The Government fully support Business in the Community's efforts in that area.

§ Lord Gainford
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. Does he have any figures of the number of persons, organisations and companies that have taken advantage of the schemes and are setting an example for others to follow?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, at present the total number of local enterprise agencies is some 240 in England and some 320 in the United Kingdom as a whole. There are in England as far as we can see 166 people on secondment from the private sector. That figure is increasing all the time. I cannot help the noble Lord as to the companies and organisations that have provided those 166 people, but I shall be happy to let him have that information if he wishes.

§ Lord Rochester
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that there are a good number of large companies that have needed no prompting to second executives to local enterprise agencies? Indeed, faced with the need to reduce the number of people that they can themselves employ if they are to remain internationally competitive, have not such companies actively taken the lead in promoting agencies in the localities in which they operate?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, I pay glad and grateful tribute to the many organisations and companies in this country that have allowed some of their brightest executives to go into local enterprise agencies and to help with the promotion and growth not only of new jobs and businesses through those agencies but also with the many other programmes run by the Manpower Services Commission. Indeed, it is a sign of the responsibility felt by the private sector for the state of the economy and for those not in full employment. I am very glad to pay tribute to those organisations.

Lord Bruce of Donington
My Lords, in view of the fact that most of the local enterprise boards have proved themselves to be very successful and are, in the Government's terms, highly cost-effective in creating new jobs in the areas covered by them, will not the Government consider giving active financial support, on the ground of pure cost-effectiveness, to those boards which have shown as a matter of experience that they can create jobs at far lower cost than some of the other enterprises that have the support of the noble Lord's department?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, I am glad on this occasion—and, alas, it is only on rare occasions—to be fully in agreement with the noble Lord. I am happy to remind all in your Lordships' House that on 1st April the local enterprise agency grants scheme will commence for a period of five years. That scheme will give money to local enterprise agencies up and down the land but only to those in need of central government assistance; those whose income is no more than £60,000 in the first year. Such support is designed to taper off as local enterprise agencies come to rely upon the support of local industry. We felt that the best way to ensure that agencies remain relevant to needs is for them to demonstrate to us that they can obtain help from the private sector.

Lord Bruce of Donington
My Lords, why should support taper off? If the enterprise boards are so successful, surely the Government should seize the opportunity with both hands to stimulate employment in their localities, albeit in agreement with private 1398 enterprise. Why do the Government not put some dynamism behind the scheme instead of tapering it off, with the objective of putting as much burden as they can on industry which has already been handicapped by the policies of the Government?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, I hardly think that local enterprise agencies have been handicapped by the policies of this Government. Indeed, they are almost a creation of the policies of this Government. Where I suspect we depart from the noble Lord is that we believe that continuing support from government without a demonstration of the support of the private sector would succeed only in institutionalising the agencies and would cease to make them relevant to the creation of small firms in a short time. We are here ensuring that local enterprise agencies will always be relevant to the needs of their localities, because they will have to demonstrate continually that they have support from the companies there.