New government reforms based on Lord Young's recommendations in his report Growing your Business are just months away and local authorities in particular will have a pivotal role in determining their success. The reforms are good news - bringing more choice and competition to local authorities, ensuring greater value for money for taxpayers and higher standards of services. But first, local authorities will need to plan and implement for changes so that by the time the new legislation comes along; it is simply business as usual. For this government, this particular reform agenda has been a priority since 2010. We have made a lot of progress and we are now preparing to push even further ahead in our quest to help small firms win an even bigger slice of the £230bn pie that the wider public sector spends on goods and services. What we have been doing is steadily addressing and removing the barriers that historically have prevented small businesses from having a fair bite of the cherry - and it is a sizeable fruit when you consider that £230bn is the equivalent to the economy of a medium sized country and £1 for every £7 spent in Britain.
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