Dated: 12 May 2011

In his message to the IoD Convention, Miles Templeman, Director-General, in assessing the performance of the Coalition in its first year, said:

On economic policy:

“We continue to be strong supporters of the Government’s macro-economic plans.  It is vital that the Government sticks to the policies it has started on deficit reduction, and see them through rather than soften or dilute them in order to appease certain Lib-Dem voters.

On education reform:

“I think the Government has laid down some important and bold steps, particularly in trying to reform our many underperforming schools and raising the basic level of achievement of young people – too many of whom still leave education without a strong grasp of basic skills needed by employers.  Introducing competition into schools is a welcome start, and is the best way to raise standards, but it does mean the Government has to accept the idea of winners and losers.  All too often our Governments have worried too much about helping and protecting the losers rather than backing the winners.

On regulation:

“Getting rid of unnecessary and harmful regulation and bureaucracy is certainly an area where despite fine words we have yet to see real progress. Despite the efforts of many in the business community, the Government has not fully grasped the impact on smaller companies of employment law and they way in which it discourages firms from taking on new staff.

On planning policy:

“Another area where the Government has as yet underperformed is in the area of planning, both at national and at local level. They have not yet improved the speed and effectiveness of the UK’s planning regime.  This is fundamental to our economic progress, whether we are talking about major transport or energy projects, or local business and housing development.  The Government seems to recognise the problem but has yet not delivered.

On  Local Enterprise Partnerships:

“Businesses need a voice at local level, but the confusion surrounding the introduction of LEPs gives us some concern that business influence on local planning decisions may actually be reduced rather than enhanced. And, while the Government has discussed allowing local authorities to keep a proportion of new business rates  to encourage them to focus on developing business growth in their areas, we have yet to see the hard plans emerge.”