If you are mobilising an ‘enterprise surge’ in your locality then we want to hear from you.
While it is understandable that the coalition government cannot invest as much in regeneration as their predecessors, more needs to be done in the name of rebalancing these economies and supporting deprived communities.
Locality members have reported endless examples of diseconomies of scale to us, from youth services to legal aid services to mental health interventions, through to employability schemes like the Work Programme, probably the most extreme example of scale thinking and one which is having disastrous consequences for poorer communities and smaller providers.
If we take time to look, we can see that neighbourhoods are full of gems and shells, rocks and pearls. People with unexpected stories, landmarks loaded with significance, networks of friendliness and gossip.
The reality is that the purpose of Jobcentre Plus is to stop benefit payments, not to advise on how to remain on them. This advisor had an opportunity to improve the prospects of both the young person and the entrepreneurs; instead she imposed a sanction that kicked a bit more stuffing out of the young man and did nothing to help our floundering economy.
Simply put, economic development is not practiced in the U.S. What is practiced can honestly be described as Chamber of Commerce commercial development, which accommodates business interests for the sake of ‘growth’ and ‘development’, to the joy of public and civic officials, at great public expense in the form of abatements, exemptions, subsidies, and write-offs.
If I want to affect youth unemployment, the arguments I have to find are not of alienated youth and wasted opportunity, but of growth, competitiveness and more urgently – immediate bottom line benefit.
All of our communities in reality says Cantle, are increasingly ‘more diverse, more global, more inter-state and inter-cultural than we have ever imagined’. Change is with us, and we are in shock.
His formula is the ‘intense long term planting of social enterprises in defined areas of worklessness, which will create real employment and improve social cohesion’ by focussing on impact rather than profit. This focus will create social capital and in turn create a ‘tipping point’ that will lever in mainstream investment.
Good quality education is one of the UK’s most competitive exports and the sector’s value is projected to grow at 4% per annum. Right now we are in a double dip recession and we need all the help we can get.
