YORK and North Yorkshire councils have signed an agreement with the Federation of Small Businesses, committing to engage with small businesses in the region.

The FSB’s Small Business Engagement Accord was signed by North Yorkshire County Council, Craven, Ryedale, Richmondshire and Hambleton district councils, the Boroughs of Harrogate and Scarborough, City of York Council and the North Yorkshire Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Park Authorities, to affirm their commitment to a more constructive relationship with businesses in their areas.

David Cox, FSB national councillor, said: “North Yorkshire authorities are working closely with the business community to deliver a range of initiatives and benefits for local businesses. This mass commitment, one of the first in the country and the first to include National Park Authorities, goes a long way to build the reputation of a small business friendly region.”

Barry Dodd, chairman of the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership, “We will be working closely with the FSB and our other Business partners to encourage all public sector bodies to develop more constructive relationships with local SMEs.”

The accord includes 14 principles:

1) Councils should nominate representatives to be "business engagement champions" whose role will be to ensure that the views of the local business community are considered at every stage of any consultation exercise.

2) Council "business engagement champions" should be tasked with creating effective links with all sections of the business community.

3) Councils should identify business owners that can be "engagement champions" within their local business community.

4) Councils should look to "front load" consultations in order to ensure that engagement with the business community happens at the earliest stages of any consultation exercise.

5) Local authorities must use recognised business organisations when consulting with small businesses.

6) Councils must not regard consultation with just one business or business organisation as an adequate consultation.

7) Local, regional and central government should make consultation documents easier to understand and easier to respond to.

8) Consultation documents should use the correct language for the relevant audience.

9) Councils should employ a range of communication tools to promote better business engagement in consultations including for example utilising consultation documents, newsletters, information on web sites, text messages, local media, or staff directly working with businesses.

10) To increase attendance at consultation events councils should give greater notice periods in advance of any meetings.

11) Consultation with the business community should not be limited to formal consultation exercises but should be an ongoing dialogue. Councils should therefore look to hold at least one open meeting per quarter with local businesses and business organisations to encourage an open two-way exchange of information.

12) Councils should not underestimate the ability of the business community to deal with strategic issues and therefore there should be genuine consultation on an annual basis with small businesses to examine council spending plans for the following financial year.

13) Effective consultation should demonstrate to business owners the outcomes and the rationale behind the final decisions.

14) Councils should work with their Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to ensure that they communicate and consult with their local small businesses and business representative organisations and take on board good practice examples from well run, existing LSPs.