Freedom works.

The Government recently announced a number of policies to help British businesses.

They have launched the updated and overhauled businesslink.gov.uk website. This is now the primary gateway for businesses, of whatever scale, seeking support and information from the Government. It’s backed by a new telephone contact centre and many thousands of new business mentors.

They have launched a new nationally-delivered Manufacturing Advisory Service to help small and medium-sized manufacturers to grow. It is estimated that this will help generate £1.5 billion in economic growth. For more information, click here.

The Government continue their goal of cutting red tape with the extension of the Primary Authority Scheme. This allows businesses spanning local authority boundaries to nominate a particular authority under whose regulatory regime they will operate. In addition,  it will offer clearer, more straightforward guidance – so that businesses, particularly SMEs, have greater access to comprehensive guidance on what they need to do to comply. It is hoped this will create a more accountable and transparent system of local regulation and a simpler regulatory landscape.

The Make it in Great Britain campaign is aimed at transforming outdated opinions of UK manufacturing. Business Secretary, Vince Cable, said:

I want our most passionate manufacturers, whether that’s ‘captains of industry’ or those just starting out in their careers, to be our industry champions. With their help, we can modernise people’s views of manufacturing and dispel the myth that ’we don’t make anything in the UK anymore.

In Europe, despite the present instability, my colleague Mark Prisk is focusing on reducing European regulation by pressing EU officials and MEPs to follow the UK’s lead.

My colleague Douglas Carswell has been rather scathing about the Government’s progress. His post here, reminds me to ask economist David B Smith whether he believes we have moved beyond New Labour’s system, which he described as ”an economic approach that was functionally hard to distinguish from that of fascism.”  I’d certainly like to hear from businesses which believe what the Government are doing is a great help and indeed those which don’t.

I look forward to hearing the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 29 November. I wish I could believe it will include those measures which would be in everyone’s long term interests: worthwhile bank reform, comprehensive deregulation of business and a sufficient acceleration of the deficit reduction strategy to enable tax cuts…

Related reading:

• Schiff and Schiff, How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes: Two Tales of the Economy
• Mises, Bureaucracy (PDF, buy), The Causes of the Economic Crisis (PDF, buy) and Economic Freedom and Interventionism (online, buy)
• Kirzner, How Markets Work: Disequilibrium, Entrepreneurship and Discovery
• More

Recently, my researcher Tim attended the APPG on Equitable Life. The biggest issue discussed was that of pre-1992 policy holders who have been excluded from the compensation mechanism.

The group heard from Honor Blackman, who is set to receive a full 100% compensation, while two other victims of the Equitable Life collapse were told they would receive no remuneration for their losses.  Mrs. Blackman said that they were all prudent and put money aside for a rainy day, but that was where the similarity ends. She viewed the 1992 cut off date with a burning sense of injustice.

Another attendee who was disqualified spoke about her 91 year old WWII-veteran husband and said that he didn’t fight for injustices like Equitable Life to happen. She stressed that she was not asking for extra benefits – just what is owed.

EMAG are challenging this discrepancy and feel that because these people are in their 80s and 90s, their need is desperate as time is running out for justice.

The recently published Equitable Life Payment Scheme Design sets out in detail what to expect for the post-1992 policy holders, while a letter from Mark Hoban has stated that:

Policy holders do not need to do anything to claim their payments – the Scheme has policyholders’ details from Equitable Life and the Prudential, and will contact policyholders directly in the first instance.

And that:

All payments will be tax free and will not affect eligibility for tax credits.

The Payment Scheme also provides an updated timeline for repayments:

Most WPA policyholders can expect to receive their first payment by June 2012. Payments for WPA policyholders’ past losses will be evenly spread over the first five years of the Scheme, and future losses will paid by the Scheme over the lifetime of the policyholder, or for the fixed or guaranteed term of the policy. This means that most WPA policyholders will receive annual payments up to 2016, and many of those with future losses will also receive payments in subsequent years.

Despite recent advances, I know that in the House there is sympathy for the need to compensate the estimated 10,000 people in the pre-1992 group who have been excluded from any reimbursement.

We should always remember that it was the state which turned Equitable Life from a serious problem into a disaster. The state as a provider and turnaround entrepreneur was never going to work effectively. I hope the relevant lessons have been learned.

Business First Magazine has published a cover story by me and my Cobden Centre colleague Robert Sadler, It’s not enough to bash the bankers.

In the article, we argue that the collapse of the present banking orthodoxy is inevitable. So-called “quantitative easing”, plus the inflationary combination of central banking with fractional reserve deposit taking is unjust and we should insist that banks operate according to the same commercial principles as any other business.

You can read the article here.

This morning, I visited High Wycombe’s Cash Converters, where I learned how this firm provides a valuable service to some of the people who struggle most locally. I arrived with a predictable range of questions about fees, fraud and the avoidance of handling stolen goods and, I have to write, I was impressed by the answers.

Next up was SAS, in Medmenham, who produce business analytics software and services. SAS is a privately held and extremely impressive company with a product suite of astonishing capability. The firm’s values-based care for its staff was uplifting, and their pragmatic attitude to sustainability across their expansive site seems standard-setting.

I met some inspiring local people in my advice clinic and I’ll leave shortly for a dinner where I am speaking to around 170 people about faith and politics…

Here is the second of my short videos promoting the Wycombe Business Expo which starts this Thursday.