The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has criticised the Government's small business support network - saying despite a budget of £8 billion per year, it provides conflicting, confusing and inconsistent support to small firms, writes Tom Whitney.

According to a CBI report 'Improving government services for small and growing businesses,' small firms are failing to use publicly-funded schemes, because they do not know what support is available or are overwhelmed by the amount of advice on offer.

"There are more than 2,650 government-supported schemes available, which is a daunting prospect for small businesses trying to find the information they need," said CBI spokesman Nick Boja.

"While the Government has been keen to set up the Business Link network as a gateway to all this information, despite receiving £140 million investment per year, only one in seven firms has used it. The Government needs to identify which schemes are actually working and focus its resources on them," Boja added.

Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic advisor added: "Quality business support is proven to boost survival and growth prospects. However, there are too many overlapping, confusing and inconsistent government schemes.

"With £8 billion spent a year on services to small businesses they should be exemplary but this is not the case," said McCafferty. "Action is needed, not to reduce the budget, but to make sure it is effectively used."

Responding to the criticism, a spokesman for the Government's Small Business Service (SBS) said: "We agree with the CBI that there is a need to simplify government support to business.

"A major programme of simplification is being launched. The programme aims to streamline and simplify business support while improving the level of service to businesses and delivering enhanced economic impact."

However, the spokesman added that the Government's Business Link service now helps more than double the number of businesses it did four years ago. "According to our research, Business Link customers are increasingly satisfied with the service they receive," said the spokesman. "Customer satisfaction was 90 per cent as of September 2005 - a rise of 9.5 per cent since 2001.

"In addition, in the last 12 months, Business Link has helped 680,000 firms - 510,000 of which were existing businesses," he added.

For free business advice visit the Business Link website at www.businesslink.gov.uk
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