Chambers of commerce should have greater powers to influence the decision-making process in local government, it has been claimed.

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, wants the grassroots organisations to be given a statutory role on councils.

He said the public-funded business support groups lacked "rigour, relevance and focus" and were too often competing against each other.

Writing in a national newspaper, he said: "The message consistently comes back from business that they are confused by the plethora of business support services and remain unconvinced as to their effectiveness.

"However you repackage business support services, recent efforts have comprised public sector solutions to business problems."

In recent years chambers of commerce have taken on a more regional emphasis. Many have merged and several have more than 2,000 members.

Mr Frost said these chambers should be at the heart of local government, fighting for the interests of business and delivering government business support services.

Something approaching Mr Frost's vision exists in Sussex, where the region's individual chambers are affiliated to an umbrella organisation.

Sussex Enterprise, which has more than 5,000 members, is branded as the UK's ninth biggest chamber of commerce and purports to be the "voice of business".

It is a business-led membership organisation but also helps deliver government-backed support services such as Business Link and Learndirect.

Mr Frost's proposals drew a luke-warm response from Sussex Enterprise chief executive Mark Froud, who has often been critical of the Government. He said: "I agree with David that we need to reduce confusion and in Sussex we are making strong progress; 98 per cent of businesses know who we are and what we do.

"But the Government keeps coming up with new bits of money to pay for their latest idea and every time, they ask a new organisation or brand to deliver this.

"We are the voice of Sussex business but need to be careful about taking on a statutory responsibility, effectively becoming part of the Government. Our members would not want that."

The debate over the effectiveness of Government-funded business support has intensified with plans to streamline the Department of Trade and Industry.

Tuesday August 17, 2004