a.
This is a missed opportunity, because it means that the majority of businesses, who do not have the ability to grow physically, will not see a change in relationship with their local council.
In order to incentivise councils to engage with, and deliver for their entire business base, the government should reconsider its decision to exclude all rateable value increases from the business rates retention scheme.
We surveyed firms on what they would like to see their council prioritise and the top three answers were investing in local infrastructure, improving community safety and maintaining the built environment. All three of these have the potential to raise rateable values in an area.
Where councils can prove that such investment has led to an increase in rateable values, they should be allowed to keep a proportion of the resulting increase in business rates.
We know that businesses support the principle of business rates retention and are willing to pay more in rates in return for investment in their local area, as the success of business improvement districts show.
What the business community is looking for is a financial link between local councils and firms that is so strong, it will force a relentless focus from the former on local economic development. As things currently stand, that financial link does not exist, a point we will be making as the local government finance bill completes its passage through the House of Lords.
Colin Stanbridge who is chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry
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The Youth Contract is a good start on tackling worklessness, but local authorities need to be at the heart of policy
The government’s £1bn flagship Youth Contract, which has promised to create at least 410,000 jobs for young people, was launched last week.
Set amid a backdrop of rising unemployment figures, it makes sense for central government to tackle youth unemployment as a top priority. Young people aged 18 to 24 are now part of the fastest growing age group without work and the country is at serious risk of creating a lost generation. Figures released last month by the Office for National Statistics revealed that up to 1 million young people across the UK are now jobless.
However, plugging large quantities of cash into high profile schemes is not necessarily the answer to unlocking growth and creating jobs – this comes from confident and creative engagement with employers, and it is at a local level where this can happen.
The Youth Contract marks an important start for raising awareness of the seriousness of the problem, but fails to factor in how local government can help to deliver results.
Councils sit at the very heart of their local community and as a result they have an unparalleled overview of local business and the needs of their area. This enables them to play a central role in helping to foster local growth by targeting resources to meet local needs.
The recent investment into local high streets pledged by the government in response to the Mary Portas review is an excellent example of local and central government working in partnership to stimulate growth and regeneration. A similar approach should be applied to tackling youth unemployment if things are to change.
The onus must be on local authorities to become more creative about how they engage with local employers to foster opportunities for work. Councils need to play a bigger part in both supporting and galvanising local employers to create more jobs.
Westminster currently generates 2% of countrywide GDP, so our businesses are well placed to help stimulate job growth, particularly for young people looking for work.
Last month, Westminster council launched a programme to create 2,012 apprenticeship and employment opportunities for local young people before the end of the year. It brought together 170 employers from different sectors, including catering, performing arts, technology and the 