Is it that hard to implement an expenses policy?

I have resisted the temptation so far to comment on the scandal of MPs expenses, however it does raise a much more important question - how are our taxes spent?

What I find difficult is the inexplicable refusal of anyone named to admit what we all know to be reality i.e. they have been caught "with their hands in the till". The answer......in line with the general mentality of the public sector is to have an inquiry, convene a panel, take ages and come up with a compromise.

Is business any different? I would split businesses into those that are owner run and those which are larger e.g. PLC. In the latter there is always an expenses policy and most people lower down in the organisation adhere to them under threat of dismissal if they falsify claims. Higher up some of these organisations are run as personal fiefdoms by individuals who have lost all sense of reality. Just look at the extravagant expenditure incurred by Fred Goodwin or the arrogance of the US car manufacturers flying around in private planes. It is not their money and so they regard it as a "perk" and there are too few people prepared to challenge them. Exploitation in my eyes.

In an owner run company there is a knowledge that every penny counts and so expenses are kept to an absolute minimum and have to be justified. No expense account lunches here - a sandwich during a meeting is the most that can be expected. In NWES expenses are minimal. Staff members understand that we can only spend what we earn and so if we increase mileage rates for example then there is less to pay on salaries.

We have heard so much about "moral compasses" from our politicians over the years but most have been shown to lack these. Forget the rules, common sense should dictate what can be justified and what cannot. There is a simple solution which can be implemented within a week. ALL employees in the public sector should adhere to a single set of rules which apply to all publicly funded organisations. Most businesses could supply a template to be adopted and then there would be no need to hold special committees etc. It would be transparent and those of us who pay taxes would know that our money was being used wisely.

I know that this will not happen because it employs common sense and a quick and workable solution. Also there are too many people with a vested interest in maintaining their perks. Still we can hope!

New Entrepreneur Scholarships

A subject which I have been meaning to touch upon for a while is that of the New Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund (NES). This programme has run for the last 5/6 years and has been funded by the Learning and Skills Council. Run by the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA) in partnership with the Princes Trust and Association of Business Schools it has been one of the most successful programmes that I have had the pleasure of being involved in.

In brief, individuals from the most disadvantaged areas of the country go through a programme of training and 1-1 support combined with a £1500 bursary to help them start in business. They even have the opportunity to gain an NVQ 2 or 3 qualification. The figures are impressive:

- 75% of participants start up in business
- 86% are still trading after 3 years and 76% after 5 years
- the majority were unemployed or economically inactive when starting the scheme
- over 5000 businesses started
- all this for a unit cost of £6500.

Unfortunately this programme has now ceased due to lack of funding - and it was only £5/6m per annum. In a time when jobs are being cut, self employment is an increasingly attractive option and of course it has the added benefit of creating even more jobs via business growth. The logic of stopping this in the teeth of the worst recession for a generation seems madness when we are spending billions on untried and intangible new projects.

Let us hope that there is someone with a modicum of sanity at BERR, government or in the Conservative party who will champion the return and indeed expansion of this scheme at a time when the country desperately needs it. "Tried and tested" is a sensible policy to have when all around are experimenting and mortgaging our future. Just think what £50m a year could do to regenerate struggling areas. Then again who said logic ever enters any political decisions!