ABSTRACT
The UK government’s shift towards small government and market liberalisation in the 1980s led to significant changes in the development and delivery of enterprise policies. This chapter explores two areas in which the government sought to tackle rising unemployment and to spur new and growing small businesses for wider job creation and economic growth. Firstly, we discuss the development of new approaches to regional policy in relation to the retreat of government, both in terms of regeneration areas with low regulation and taxation (enterprise zones) and new, private sector-led regional bodies (Local Enterprise Agencies). The second focus in this chapter is the national-level attempts to remove regulation to support a free market economy. Business start-up and small business growth in particular have been highlighted as important rationales for deregulation and this chapter will discuss these initiatives in relation to enterprise policy. The chapter analyses high-profile commitments from the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s to remove the ‘burdens’ of regulation and to improve the institutional environment in which to start-up and grow a business.
