Business Link’s closure ‘harmful’ to firms

Andrew Walker, the regional chairman of R3, the association of business recovery professionals, warned that the Government’s decision to scrap Business Link could make it harder for companies to survive. However, a report compiled by Business Link Yorkshire acknowledges that the service, which attracted £35m a year of taxpayers’ money, “never quite fully embedded” a high performance culture, although it made progress towards it.

Mr Walker, a Leeds-based partner at law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: “Without the practical support that was provided by Business Link advisers and helplines, many more businesses would have found themselves in trouble.”

Business Link Yorkshire was established in April 2008. It attracted funding from Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, which is being scrapped as part of the Government’s austerity measures.

Business Link Yorkshire was delivered by YHIDB, a company jointly owned by Exemplas and Reed in Partnership.

At its peak, it employed 400 people in Yorkshire.

Nationally, Business Link was set up to provide impartial advice to help companies grow. Business Link Yorkshire faced a number of problems during its short life. These included concerns over its procurement process, a £1.4m misfiring computer system, fluctuating customer satisfaction levels, recruitment problems and changes to its senior management team.

In January, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced that it was killing off the eight regional Business Links and replacing them with a new national website offering helpful information. This will be backed up by a national call centre.

Business Link has produced a legacy report which it believes will help anyone thinking of developing business support services.

The report says: “Targets were a perennial issue for many of our staff and we had difficulties in ensuring that contractual targets and measures did not lead to inappropriate behaviour or confuse the customer service.” Businessman Tony Pedder, the chairman of Business Link Yorkshire, said the “inappropriate behaviour” related to putting volume ahead of quality. However, he said the service could go out “with its head held high”.

He added: “A lot of the advisers had run businesses.”

The report adds: “Ultimately, an approach focused on impact, quality and productivity made a big difference to performance, to ways of working and to the culture.”

The report says Business Link Yorkshire’s first year was difficult, with a number of teething problems. The report adds: “These were mainly associated with people and systems issues, as we brought together staff from 11 different organisations on 26 different contracts of employment. We experienced particular problems with our marketing and our events programme during the first six months. The quality of our services was variable and inconsistent across the region.”

According to the report, Business Link Yorkshire introduced new ways of working to improve the quality, consistency and impact of its service.

The report also states that Business Link Yorkshire handled more than 200,000 telephone enquiries and made more than 33,000 referrals to other organisations. As a result, it helped to create nearly 12,500 jobs, the report states.

Gary Williamson, chief executive at Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We need to recognise the contribution Business Link Yorkshire has made to many businesses and the local economy but we have been in planning mode ever since it was announced by the Government that the local services provided by Business Link would cease.

“The net result of this planning is that we believe we have in place a comprehensive set of resources and high quality services to help small and medium-sized concerns across the region that are looking to grow or manage their operation more efficiently.”

Richard Wright, executive director of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, said: “There is no doubt that Business Link supported a number of companies.

“The business community has generally supported the need to balance the economy and reduce the massive national debt. It is where there is much less business support funding, that the measures are starting to bite businesses. Companies will rely more and more on their representative organisations.”

Ian Kelly, the chief executive of Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce, said the private sector provided a comprehensive range of business support services. He added: “Our hearts go out to those people who are losing their jobs at Business Link Yorkshire.”

A guiding hand

According to Business Link Yorkshire, 24 per cent of pre-start – or early stage – companies it supported would “definitely or probably not” have set up in business without its guidance.

Business Link Yorkshire recorded a strong demand for support with business planning and human resources issues. There were also growing numbers of women seeking business support.

Helen West, Business Link Yorkshire chief executive, said: “Our legacy report attempts to capture our experience and our learning, both good and bad, in an open and honest fashion.”