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Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Global Entrepreneurship Week kicks off bid to make this the UK’s most entrepreneurial decade

Posted by ericww on November 13, 2010

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 29JAN10 - David Cameron, Le...

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MORE than 1,000 organisations and 400 schools throughout the UK take on the challenge to make a job not just take a job, bust myths and strive to kick start the most entrepreneurial decade.

Global Entrepreneurship Week (15th – 21st November 2010) inspires young people and aspiring entrepreneurs to take the next step on their enterprise journey.

Every town and city in the UK will see organisations and schools hosting events to encourage and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs as people look to make a job not just take a job.

And there are a number of green-themed entrepreneurial events planned throughout the week, a selection of which can be viewed on the HZH special Global Entrepreneurship Week ‘Green’ Events Page

In more than 100 countries across the world, over 7.5 million people will take part with around 100,000 people attending 1,800 events in the UK. Global Entrepreneurship Week was founded by Enterprise UK in 2004, and taken globally in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation in 2008.

Prime Minister David Cameron said of the week:

‘Global Entrepreneurship Week is a fantastic opportunity for us to inspire the innovators and entrepreneurs in our country – and in the current economic climate that is incredibly important. The future of our economy depends on a new generation of entrepreneurs coming up with ideas, resolving to make them a reality and having the vision to create wealth and jobs.

Every success story starts with someone taking the brave step of striking out on their own, so the more we can encourage people to take that step the better. That’s why the government is doing everything possible to encourage entrepreneurs who are starting out – from simplifying taxes to providing access to mentors – and that’s why I wish Global Entrepreneurship Week every success’

In response to the Prime Minister’s call for the most entrepreneurial decade, Enterprise UK will challenge:

  • The Ambition Gap – 50% of the population want to start a business but only 5.8% are in the actual process of starting a business
  • The Demographic Gap- approximately 10% of entrepreneurs are under 35 and London has twice the levels of entrepreneurial activity as some other UK regions.
  • The Skills Gap – Enterprise education doubles your chances of business success but enterprise is still not a staple of the education system – in schools, colleges and universities

The Launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week will be at Google HQ in London hosted by Peter Jones, entrepreneur, Dragon and Chairman of Enterprise UK and Tom Bewick, CEO of Enterprise UK.

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£8m to create UK’s first city-wide reuse and repair service

Posted by ericww on July 12, 2010

LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson and actress Joanna Lumley OBE today announced £8m funding from the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) to create the world’s largest ‘reuse network’, helping household items find a new home rather than being chucked away.

The funding will go to the London Community Resource Network (LCRN), a charitable social enterprise who will set up the network to address the 65,000 tonnes of household products are thrown out by Londoners each year, ending up in costly landfill sites and adding both to carbon emissions and council bills, when most of them could be reused or repaired.

The London Reuse Network will be made up of ‘clusters’ of organisations , including local authorities and charities who will work together to deliver an easy-to-access and consistent reuse service to residents and businesses within their area. It will collect, store, refurbish and sell on everything from furniture, books, carpets and bikes through to cookers and fridges. It aims to divert 17,000 tonnes of reusable products from landfill over the first two years of the project saving over 80,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. It will provide a single ‘reuse hotline’ and web portal serving the whole of London. By 2015 the network aims to be diverting over a million items from the waste stream every year, training thousands and employing hundreds of people.

The first cluster will be set up by Western Riverside Waste Authority who manage waste from the London Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Lambeth, Wandsworth, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The Western Riverside Waste Authority will work with LCRN to deliver a reuse network across the four boroughs and will work in partnership with key organisations and community groups. The project includes the creation of a reuse workshop operating as a training centre for the refurbishment of white goods and furniture, training over 40 young people in the first year.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: ‘It is a common sense use of our natural resources that we provide ways for people to hand in items they no longer need, but which still have plenty of useful life in them. This funding is really welcome news, helping to create a service for Londoners to do exactly that and help to slash the mountain of waste being sent unnecessarily to landfill and cut the heavy economic costs of doing so.’

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Time (just) to tell the Government what you think

Posted by ericww on June 7, 2010

Do you fancy influencing the new Government’s environmental policy? For three days only you have the chance.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) today announced that their programme for change website will be accepting comments from the public. It’s only open until Thursday (10th of June) so if you have something to say now is the time.
The Programme for Government website is a simple charter setting out what the Coalition intends to achieve during its time in government. The pledges on the DECC website include nuclear power, continued support for the Feed In Tariff, no third runway for Heathrow, smart meters for every home, a floor price for carbon and support for the EU wide 30% reduction in CO2 emissions. Quite a list.
DECC has said that the comments will help influence policy (although there is no explanation of how). So far only 200 people have commented. This means that your voice has a better chance of being heard by government here than at the election or any other broad consultation. Time to let them know what you think.
Please let HZH know what you’ve written so we can follow up your comments with DECC to ensure they were properly considered and learn what their response was.
Good luck!


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Climate change is ‘gravest threat’ in the new Coalition agenda

Posted by ericww on May 21, 2010

THE NEW Coalition Government fleshed out its plans for policy-making from Westminster yesterday following the publication of “The Coalition: our programme for government.”  In it, the new Prime Minister David Cameron and his Deputy PM Nick Clegg set out their joint agenda that promises “freedom, fairness and responsibility.”  It states that the Government believes that climate change is one of the gravest threats this country faces, and that urgent action at home and abroad is required.

Among a number of commitments, covering education, business, civil liberties and many other policy areas, the Coalition makes the following promises on climate change:

                       ” We will push for the EU to demonstrate leadership in tackling international climate change, including by supporting an increase in the EU emission reduction target to 30% by 2020.

                        “We will seek to increase the target for energy from renewable sources, subject to the advice of the Climate Change Committee.

                        “We will continue public sector investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology for four coal-fired power stations.

                        “We will establish a smart grid and roll out smart meters.”

The document, which is genuinely refreshing to read in tone and style, is a broadly positive glimpse into the new Coalition engine room, but – and it’s a big but – it makes no attempt to explain exactly how any of these commitments will become a reality.  I guess we shall have to wait for the second installment!

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