HC Deb 21 July 1994 vol 247 cc452-4W
Mr. David Shaw

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the achievements of(a) his policies and (b) his Department in helping small businesses over the last 12 months as against the previous 12 months; if he will publish the performance indicators by which his Department monitors those achievements and the statistical results of such monitoring; and if he will set out his targets to help small businesses in the next year.

Mr. Curry

The Government recognise the crucial role played by small firms in the United Kingdom economy. Government help small firms by keeping inflation and interest rates low and by reducing legislation arid administrative burdens. They also provide direct assistance where appropriate and are currently establishing a network of business links to provide high-quality business support across the country.

The Government brought together in April the regional offices of four Departments—Environment, Trade arid Industry, Transport and Employment—to form the Government offices for the regions. These will strengthen the co-ordination of programmes and policies locally and ensure that businesses have one port of call.

The Government's regeneration initiatives are being simplified by the introduction of the single regeneration budget which will benefit small firms by encouraging sustainable economic growth by improving the competitiveness of the local economy. We will continue under the SRB to monitor existing programmes, including measures relevant to businesses, and to publish results.

English Partnerships has been established and is tackling the problems of urban regeneration in co-operation with the private sector and other agencies.

The Rural Development Commission, sponsored by my Department, continues to provide advice and other assistance to small businesses in rural areas. On 14 February the Government announced a new competition, rural challenge, to be adminstered by the RDC. This will award six prizes of £1 million to innovative rural development projects. These will benefit small businesses by giving a boost to social and economic development in our smaller towns and villages.

The Department introduced the Non-Domestic Rating Act 1993 to honour the Chancellor of the Exchequer's March 1993 Budget pledge to freeze rate rises for businesses in real terms under the non-domestic rating transitional arrangements for the second year running. Following the November 1993 Budget, the Non-Domestic Rating Act 1994 then halved transitional rate rises for 1994–95, cutting them from 15 per cent. to 7.5 per cent. in real terms for small businesses. Small businesses with mixed domestic and business premises had their increases frozen for a third year.

In partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry, we have set up a review into the organisation of enforcement functions of local authorities with the aim of minimising the costs to business as well as reducing inconsistencies in enforcement. We expect to publish the results later this year.

My Department's Energy Efficiency Office continues to provide grants under the energy management assistance scheme to help smaller businesses reduce their energy costs. Over the past 12 months almost 3,500 grants, averaging about £450 each, have been paid to small manufacturing and commercial enterprises.

My Department has continued to work with DTI to support a programme designed to raise awareness of environmental issues among small firms and give them practical help and guidance on improving their environmental performance. This is in response to a recommendation from our advisory committee on business and the environment. Over the past 12 months we have made progress on both aspects of this programme—support for local green business clubs and for sectoral projects. Four further green business clubs have been launched with our support—in Leeds, Newcastle, Southampton and the London borough of Sutton. My Department has commissioned external research to evaluate how effective the clubs are in improving the environmental performance of small businesses in their locality. We have also started to support an initiative in the leather industry, working in partnership with the British Leather Confederation, to raise awareness and promulgate best practice among the many small businesses in that sector. Over the next year we will continue to fund this programme and to monitor the impact that it has on environmental awareness, attitudes and behaviour among small firms.

In the competitiveness White Paper my Department committed itself to working with the DTI to review the procedures for alerting small businesses to new environmental regulations and for explaining them. We will take this commitment forward over the next 12 months.

We have laid regulations to transfer some processes from the much more wide-ranging integrated pollution control system to local authority air pollution control and to exempt certain processes from control altogether.

Regulations were amended in October 1993 to allow a single IPC authorisation to cover an entire chemical process, from receipt of raw materials, via production of intermediates, to dispatch of finished products. The amended regulations also allow operators of what would normally be seen as more than one process to function with a single authorisation if they are producing less than 250 tons of product per year.

In July 1993 my Department issued a consultation paper on proposals to repeal controls exercised by local authorities to approve the design and fitting of arrestment plant on small furnaces. We intend to implement the repeal by means of the general deregulation power in the Deregulation and Contracting Out Bill, if enacted.

In March this year, we announced that in view of environmental improvements, we had re-examined proposals for regulations on the sale and sulphur content of domestic fuels, and did not intend to introduce further controls.

We have introduced a new definition of waste and issued guidance on its interpretation which is deregulatory in effect. We have helped small businesses by substantially increasing from 1 May 1994 the number of exemptions from waste management licensing.

My Department, in conjunction with DTI, has worked with industry to set up schemes for managing supplies of halons and CFC refrigerants following phase-out. Small businesses will therefore continue to have access to used or recycled substances to keep equipment running, thereby reducing the short-term costs of phase-out.

During the last year we have consulted widely on a number of proposals related to water pollution controls, water abstraction and reservoirs, with a view to deregulating where possible. In consulting we were careful to ensure that the interests of small businesses were adequately represented.

In our role as sponsors of the construction industry, we have encouraged the smaller trade associations to affiliate to larger unbrella bodies so as to improve communication between the industry and the Department. Information flow has improved through a new regular series of meetings and a relaunch of our magazine. The Latham review of procurement gave particular attention to the needs of small contractors and subcontractors to be paid promptly. We aim to minimise the burden on small firms on form filling, provide a statistical feedback as an aid to planning and encourage user-friendly research results. In addition, export support has been significantly increased over the past year to provide assistance to companies of all sizes.

In December 1993, my Department issued a consultation paper "Streamlining Planning" which proposed relaxing several planning controls which would benefit small firms. We will be announcing the outcome of that consultation shortly. The Planning Inspectorate agency has further improved its performance in dealing with appeals more promptly, to the advantage of all businesses.

My Department monitors all its programmes and publishes details of a wide range of outputs and targets in its annual report.