Businesses can get access to government funding for skills and training through a simplified system launched today.

The Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform has finished rolling out Solutions for Business – a streamlined collection of business support products that has reduced more than 3,000 different schemes to just 30.

All government help for business now has the same branding and can be found mainly through Business Link.

BERR says that the move will make it easier for companies to find “the right products” to help them with common issues such as getting started, growing, finance, export, skills, innovation and the environment.

Nine products have joined the portfolio today, concluding the rollout. They are Enterprise Coaching, Improving your Resource Efficiency, Collaborative R&D, Networking for Innovation, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, Innovation Vouchers, Low Carbon Energy Demonstration, Grant for R&D and the Rural Development Programme for England.

From tomorrow, Train to Gain and Business Link brokers will come together in a new service, under the Business Link brand, to offer advice on skills. This will reinforce Business Link’s role as the main route to government support.

The government expects the tighter targeting of support to create £1.4bn of value for businesses every year and to ensure more effective use of taxpayers’ money in helping businesses grow.

“High quality business support, directed to where it will have the most impact, to help businesses start, grow and succeed is an essential weapon in the government’s fight back to economic health,” said a BERR spokesman.

Minister for Business Ian Pearson added: “To succeed in a competitive global environment, UK businesses need ongoing access to help and support. The streamlined Solutions for Business portfolio makes it simpler for businesses to get access to the help they need, providing long-term, sustainable support to business.”

The Solutions for Business portfolio was achieved through the Business Support Simplification Programme, which was announced in the 2006 Budget. The programme aims to reduce the number of publicly-funded business support schemes from more than 3,000 to less than 100 by next year.

Martin Temple, chairman of the Solutions for Business transition management board, said: “For far too long, help which has been available to business has not been taken up because it has been too complex, confusing to understand and hard to find quickly and easily. This programme will simplify access, make clear what is available and improve the quality in order to match business needs. The benefits of the new system will soon become apparent.”

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