Black Country needs self-help rather than handouts - LEP leader
Black Country businesses must stop acting like "issue families stuck in a benefits cycle" and look to self-help rather than state aid, the leader of the region's LEP has told an Insider forum.
And Stewart Towe, chairman of the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, said that larger companies must start tutoring smaller businesses through the downturn.
"The days of grants are gone forever. We have to look at self-help," Towe told an audience of more than 100 business leaders at Insider's Black Country Economic Forum, held at Walsall FC's Banks's Stadium.
“In the same way we hear about people stuck in a benefits cycle, unable to go out and get real work, it's the same with many businesses, always looking for state funding. We have to realise that asking for a grant from Business Link, or whatever, has gone. Like a family with 'issues' we have to learn to work with what we have.
"When it comes to funds and grants there’s no money – speak to central government and they'll admit the coffers are empty. Instead of asking for a grant small businesses have to now ask 'what can I do for myself?'"
The comments were supported by Tim Johnson, executive director of regeneration of Walsall Council, who added: "The old landscape, of a plethora of grants-a-plenty from Advantage West Midlands and the like, has gone and won't come back. Arguably that's no bad thing."
Towe also said that self-help also meant members of the business community had to help each other.
He suggested that larger companies should tutor smaller businesses "because there's no better mentoring than that from another company that’s been through it".
He also demanded that bigger businesses and local authorities remove unnecessary barriers, such as accreditation, that stopped small companies winning contracts.
"In a lot of cases detailed barriers are not needed but someone has created a tick box exercise, and a small company can’t get onto the list because it can’t tick something on page 15. That sort of thing really knocks our SMEs' opportunities."
A full report on the Black Country Economic Forum will be in the next issue of Insider.
