Over at Colin Challen MP's web site he has an interesting summary of the results of his local Big Conversation in Morley and Rothwell. Lots of issues were discussed but the two that I am going to pick up on are local government and small businesses.
Local Government
"City Councillors given a job description and introduce method of auditing the hours spent doing a Councillor’s job."
This is an interesting comment. First of all it is inaccurate in that since earlier this year/late last year city councillors have had a job description and have had to fill in a six monthly performance report. The Labour Group wants to publish these reports on the council's website but the opposition parties don't want to. Perhaps they are afraid of revealing just how little work they do for their constituents?
The idea of auditing the hours is on the face of it a good one, but in reality is not so straight forward. At the moment allowances for councillors are set by an independent panel that recommends an amount. That is a good thing, but the problem is that I have serious concerns about how they gather their information.
Sensible ways to do it might be to survey all councillors and to hold interviews or focus groups with a representative sample. Then to marry this information with the job description to arrive at a sensible estimation of the time commitment. They don't do this! In fact it is hard to know exactly what they do, their report is opaque to say the least.
Personally, because of my business, I keep time sheets so know exactly what time is spent on different aspects of being a councillor. The IDeA says that the average time commitment should be 55 to 70 hours a month. I'd say this is an under estimate. If you just look at the time it takes to attend 'official' meetings such as scrutiny, planning etc; and to read papers. mail, email etc; and to do surgeries and case work then there would be very little time left to do anything else.
The other problem with 'auditing time' is that much of the work - such as case work, reading papers/email etc - is done at home so would have to rely totally on the honesty of the individual councillor in reporting it. Also different people have different styles of working. What might take one councillor two hours (because they like to call in to see an officer for a chat) might take me ten minutes because I'll exchange emails. The net result on the ground, in the ward, is the same.
Should the government do more or less to try to help British businesses?
"Government should do more for small businesses and fine multi-nationals for re-locating to India etc."
"More help to smaller businesses."
"More to help."
"Government should do more to help small businesses to grow – big business is now mostly multi-nationals. Small businesses could grow to employ more people."
"Government should ensure that small businesses can access funding without having too much bureaucracy."
I find it interesting that almost all the comments are from people who think Labour should do more to help small businesses. As someone who runs a small business and has also worked for the Labour Party advising it on its relationships with the regional business community I do think it is an area where the party needs to do more.
On the whole Labour has been good at supporting enterprise, but usually big business and often at the expense of small business. The main problems facing small businesses are bureaucracy, red tape and cash flow. Despite talking about it, and setting up a deregulation task force chaired by Lord Haskins, it has done very little to reduce the burdon on small business.
In the recent budget Gordon Brown changed the rules so that small business owners have to pay corporation tax on dividends. This reversed the effects of a move just two years ago to reduce corporation tax on the first £10,000 of profits to zero percent. Thousands of small business owners became limited companies just because of this. They are now left stuck with a company structure that isn't best suited to their needs and is expensive and difficult to run.
This will have a devastating effect on small businesses. For example in our case we were looking at recruiting an admin assistant, which we now definitely won't do. Result - a little extra tax income, one less job.
Brown's naive explanation that the move was "designed to encourage small businesses to invest and expand" just shows how little he knows about realities of running a small business. It's impossible to invest in your business if you can't pay the mortgage or afford groceries. That's the reality of running a small business. It means that people who were just about making a living, might now need to fold.
Business Link is a joke. The quality and level of 'free' advice offered is pitiful and is only useful to someone with absolutely no business or management experience.
This issue is actually important in a ward like Middleton where there are lots of people trying to make a living as mechanics, small shop keepers, mobile hairdressers etc. People that should be encouraged, not penalised.
Brown might be a brilliant chancellor but on this he spends too much time listening to civil servants, who've never had to work in the real world, instead of having a Big Conversation with those that really know - small business owners themselves.
Cigarettes up 8p - good for public health. Smoking related disease is a major killer in south Leeds and we must continue to put money into helping people who want to give up. The Primary Care Trust is doing some good work.