Plan for new company to back business

The new company, formed by Sheffield, Doncaster and Barnsley and Rotherham chambers, would work alongside the forthcoming local enterprise partnership (LEP) proposed for the Sheffield City Region.

It could provide security of income for the chambers, some of which have lost valuable contracts with the setting up of a regional Business Link in 2008.

Coalition ministers have said that the Business Link contracts will be wound down, along with the regional development agencies, and have invited local councils and business representatives to draw up plans to form LEPs to help drive economic growth.

This creates an opportunity for business support providers to access public money, although any funding is likely to be significantly less than the 35m a year spent by Business Link Yorkshire.

A spokesman for the chambers said the new company would provide a bank of business advisers, strategic service and enterprise initiatives and promote Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham as a global location and market.

He said it "would also embrace key areas such as business growth, rationalise organisations, low carbon economy, access to finance, inward investment, skills, sector leadership, quality of life, tourism and visitor economy".

Richard Wright, a director and former president of the Sheffield Chamber, said the new company would bid for funding where necessary to support the strategic objectives of the Sheffield City Region LEP.

Mr Wright added: "There is a need for a flexible but focused support targeted at strategic business sectors that will help the area's economic growth.

"The chambers are already recognised across the UK and globally as the voice of business.

"It is this route to business which is the main offer provided by the chambers in South Yorkshire and by combining our business support activities we believe this gives us even greater strength and a much more cost effective and focused offer."

He said: "I don't think anyone has made any secret that chambers have had a couple of hard years in terms of publicly funded contracts and the Business Link scenario but we are still stand-alone and self-supporting."

Mr Wright said the new company would "give a lot of security to chambers going forward", although he added that the chambers were not-for-profit organisations that just sought to cover costs.

"If we can keep our costs down it naturally means we get more of our money back to members," he said.

The new company would include merged human resource and finance operations for the three existing chambers.

Policy and member representation would be retained at a local level, added Mr Wright.

Sheffield Chamber warned earlier this year that it would make a loss in the financial year to March 31 2010, but yesterday could not say how much it would be.

A spokesman for Sheffield Chamber said a working group of presidents and senior executives from all three chambers had worked on plans for the new company.

The proposals will now be put to members of the three chambers for consultation. The organisations have 4,700 members collectively, representing 157,000 members in the South Yorkshire region.

Nick Tovey, president of the Sheffield Chamber and a spokesman for all three, said: "We believe that the new jointly owned company would become the vehicle of choice for national and local government to access the business community."

Muted support for project

One of the main exponents of plans for a new business support company in South Yorkshire has declined to give his full support to a Yorkshire-wide project to promote the region's interests at a national and international level.

The three chambers propose that their jointly owned company would also be responsible for areas such as access to finance, inward investment and tourism, which backers of the Yorkshire Enterprise Partner-ship believe are best deliver-ed at a pan-Yorkshire level.

Mr Wright said: "We have said we will work across boundaries as it is required for specific things. We will work with them where it is necessary, but we won't commit to working with them only because it would not be right."

He said, for example, the South Yorkshire company could collaborate with LEPs in the North West on bids to promote the nuclear industry.