UK beginning "enterprise renaissance" says Brown

Thursday, 4 November 2004 12:00 AM

The UK is on the verge of an "enterprise renaissance", where more and more people generate their own wealth, according to the Chancellor Gordon Brown.

In a speech to the Prince's Trust Business Programme, Mr Brown said he wanted a Britain where everybody felt able to start their own business.

Claiming that Britain is enjoying the fastest growth in self-employment in its history, Mr Brown said: "In 2001 just 18 per cent believed there were good start up opportunities in business. Now benefiting from new incentives for start ups especially in deprived areas, it is 40 per cent. In 2001 40 per cent of young people believed they had the skills to start up a business. Today the figure is 54 per cent.

"But we know also how much more we have to do to catch up with the USA where twice as many young people consider starting a new business compared to Britain. Indeed today Britain would have 1.8 million more businessmen and women if we had the same proportion of people starting a business as the United States."

He also revealed that he will be meeting with the US Treasury Secretary John Snow on November 16th in Britain to discuss "developing a new transatlantic enterprise partnership so that through exchanges, the sharing of experience and a new enterprise summit between our new countries we can build a stronger enterprise culture."

In the upcoming Pre Budget Report, Mr Brown promised to introduce new proposals to help encourage a "long term cultural change" in the UK towards an enterprise culture.

The Chancellor said that his vision was a UK "where there is a vibrant spirit of enterprise in every region of the country. So at every stage - whether for companies starting up, investing, hiring, training, seeking equity, exporting - our aim must be to be on businesses' side, working to remove all the old barriers holding the enterprising back."

Claiming that this spirit starts in the classroom, he promised to work for more "enterprise education" in the school system. Under the Government's specialist school programme, schools are able to designate them as specialist business schools and so garner extra funding.

Mr Brown is also due to speak at next week's Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference. His address is expected on Tuesday, where he may outline some of his plans for enterprise in more detail.

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