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Contractors will play key role in new Enterprise Zones, claims REC

By: Paul Towndrow

Posted On: Apr 1st, 2011  Under: Contractor Jobs, Freelance Contractors, Contractor Limited Company, Sole Trader

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The intrepid freelance contractor will play a pivotal role in the 21 new Enterprise Zones announced by the Chancellor in last week’s Budget, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

The Zones will offer incentives to new private businesses emerging within them and have received the endorsement of the REC, which hailed them as “an indication of the Government taking action to back enterprise and plan for growth through the creation of new job opportunities.”

The organisation’s London Regional Director, Jes Ladva, welcomed the setting up of the Zones and added that temporary workers such as self-employed contractors will play a ‘key’ part.  In London, the Royal Docks area of Newham has already been identified as one of the locations for the scheme.  Mr Ladva praised the Zones as a “powerful means for unemployment and job-seeking candidates to gain an insight into the world of work or a new industry.”  At the same time, he added, employers will gain access to a local staff pool “that can be flexibly deployed.”

Liverpool Waters and Manchester Airport will also become Enterprise Zones in the near future, prompting the REC’s North West regional Director, Keith Gallagher, to welcome them as ‘excellent news’ for the two areas, both of which have seen a marked decrease in new business start-ups recently.  He felt that the Government had responded positively to the REC’s campaigning work, which included an open letter to the Chancellor urging him to deliver a raft of measures in his Budget aimed at providing ‘tangible incentives’ to businesses and generating new jobs.

Future Enterprise Zones include Birmingham and Solihull, Derby and Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds, the Black Country, Bristol, Teesside and the North East.

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