Business Connect
38. Business Connect was launched in 1996, intended
as a "first stop shop" for small and medium sized businesses
in Wales seeking advice and support.[67]
It is delivered by local consortia, involving all the main business
support agencies, through local business centres and an all Wales
telephone number (0345-96 97 98). Its performance has so far been
patchy. In some areas it has proved very effective. In Mid Wales,
for example, where it has been closely tied to the DBRW, it is
said to work well.[68]
In other areas, however, Business Connect is said to be little
more than a telephone number. The Federation of Small Businesses
Wales told us that Business Connect had had little impact on small
business people, whom it was primarily designed to assist.[69]
This may be largely because of a simple lack of information: the
consortia do not know enough about the needs of local businesses
to be proactive. Many witnesses argued that Business Connect needed
fundamental reform. Some suggested that Business Connect should
be extended to cover all sectors of the economy (agriculture and
tourism, for example).[70]
Pathway to Prosperity announced that Business Connect would
be "reorganised and relaunched", with the local consortia
strengthened and a new all-Wales management board, staffed by
the WDA.[71]
We welcome these changes as a move in the right direction.
For Business Connect to be effective as a "first stop shop"
it must be able to offer comprehensive information about all the
services available to local industry in all sectors. While it
has as yet largely failed to deliver, Business Connect is potentially
a very useful service. The relaunched Business Connect should
be given two or three years to prove itself. Steps must be taken
to promote best practice and to ensure that other areas learn
from those which are operating well.
39. It is, in our view, regrettable, that the boundaries
of the Business Connect consortia (North West Wales, North East
Wales, Mid Wales, Carmarthenshire/Pembrokeshire, Swansea/Neath/Port
Talbot, Mid Glamorgan, Cardiff and the Vale, and Gwent[72])
are not coterminous with either unitary authorities, TECs or the
new WDA and National Assembly regions. The Welsh Office's undertaking
to "geographically rationalise" the consortia is welcome.
We remain concerned that there is duplication of business support
at local level.
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