The CBI will on Monday attack ?totally nonsensical? political correctness that bans failure in school exams and sports, saying such attitudes undermine attempts to promote enterprise.
The employers? body will mark the start of the government-backed Enterprise Week by saying the barriers to Britain competing successfully with the ?risk-takers? of the US, China and India are as much social as economic.
The government is missing targets for developing entrepreneurship and needs to ?put its own house in order?, says the CBI in a broadside published just hours before Alan Johnson, trade and industry secretary, addresses an Enterprising Britain Summit in London.
In an article on FT.com, Sir Digby Jones, CBI director-general, criticises the ?cosy codswallop? of sports days in which every child gets a medal and exams that are harder to fail than pass. ?We are telling youngsters that risk does not exist and regulating the lifeblood of enterprise out of people.?
The CBI will urge the government to widen the scope of its plethora of initiatives aimed at encouraging enterprise beyond start-ups to encourage risk-taking and innovation in all areas of society. ?One of the biggest barriers in the UK to starting up a business is risk aversion,? the CBI argues in a policy paper issued today.
It cites survey research that suggests a third of people would not set up a company for fear of failure. The comparative figure in the US is 21 per cent, it says.
The CBI suggests the government is failing to foster a more entrepreneurial spirit. A Department of Trade and Industry target to increase the number of adults considering going into business or becoming self-employed to 14 per cent by 2005 was this year downgraded to 12.3 per cent by 2008. The most recent data show the actual figure fell from 12 per cent in 2001 to 11 per cent in 2003. The proportion of young people considering business has also fallen, from 17 per cent in 2001 to 14 per cent in 2003, despite a DTI target to increase this figure.
The CBI warns that ?if the government wants to be taken seriously when it talks about enterprise, it must put its own house in order? by changing the culture in Whitehall. ?Enterprise ministers? should be appointed to champion a deregulatory approach in all departments.
The government needs to recognise that its role in encouraging enterprise is ?not necessarily about doing more. Government actions can stifle enterprise?, the CBI paper argues. Ministers should look more closely at ?how the UK policy base acts as a deterrent to enterprise and risk-taking?.
An increasingly litigious society and the development of a ?victim culture? are discouraging enterprise and damaging long-term prospects, the CBI says.
Sir Digby, a guest editor on FT.com on Monday, warns of a ?growing feeling in the business community that?.?.?.?we no longer have a government which shows by its actions that the nation first has to earn the money ministers are so keen to spend?.
Mr Johnson is also expected to call for greater encouragement for entrepreneurs but will defend employment regulations the government has introduced.
