Business asks: 'Where is the help?'

By Simon Willis
Newsnight Scotland

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Kenneth Whitehead believes he is not getting the right kind of advice to allow his firm to expand

There are always those who buck the trend.

In the occasional series Born In A Storm, Newsnight Scotland and the BBC news website are following four new Highland businesses which were set up this year and are trying to weather the economic storm.

I've already reported how three of the firms are battling the challenges of the credit crunch.

Our fourth firm is in a more fortunate position.

Digital Recylers is run by Kenneth and Julie Whitehead from their home near Tain. They recycle computers and so far the credit crunch is proving good for business.

They believe they've hit upon such a good business idea they must expand quick enough to dominate the Scottish market or an existing, larger, business might try to muscle-in.

John Swinney says he wants every business to get the right kind of advice.

They need larger premises and they need some equipment, specifically an industrial guillotine to chop-up old hard drives.

You'd imagine Scotland's business advice agencies would be falling over themselves to help.

However, Mr Whitehead tells a story of confusion and delay.

"We wanted a grant to help us get equipment", he said. "Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) say they don't administer that anymore and the Highland Council is responsible for that.

"Yet when we phoned the Highland Council, they not only don't know who is responsible for administering it, they say they don't administer it any more, it's down to HIE. So we just go backwards and forwards between the two."

HIE dispute this version of events. They say HIE paid for nine hours of one-to-one business advice for Mr Whitehead which continues to be available.

It's a period of change at the moment, and when there's a lot of change, I think decisions don't get made Scott Bruce Business advisor

However, they can find no record of contact from Mr Whitehead since 2 June. They're now in contact with him to clarify what options are open to his business.

But responsibility for business advice is changing and this may be causing confusion among businesses.

Scott Bruce is an independent business advisor who visited all four of our Born In A Storm enterprises.

"It's a period of change at the moment, and when there's a lot of change, I think decisions don't get made", Mr Bruce said.

"And I think there's a certain amount of the unknown creeping into the network and into the council. I don't think the divisions have been clearly made, so therefore people are finding it difficult to decide if a project is theirs or somebody else's."

Element of paralysis

The change was introduced by the Scottish Government. Some, but not all of the responsibility for advising business start-ups is moving from HIE to local authorities.

It is taking longer than many anticipated and won't be complete until April 2009. What's more, HIE will retain responsibility for some business which have the potential to grow significantly and to operate beyond only local markets, particularly in the key sectors of life sciences, food and drink, tourism, energy, creative industries and financial and business services.

Mr Bruce believes the effect on the ground has been to cause confusion over who is responsible for what and, it would seem, to induce an element of paralysis.

"It's extremely difficult for a small business, especially given, at the moment, they are struggling against the economic situation", he said.

"I think perhaps the help they should be getting has fallen off the edge of the table somewhere".