The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published an update on employee ownership, one year after the government’s response to The Nuttall review on employee ownership.
The update, The Nuttall review of employee ownership: one year on report, said that progress has been made against all 28 of the review’s recommendations and that, in over half of the recommendations, progress has been assessed as having been significant.
The highlights of the past year include:
- Awareness of employee ownership has been raised, notably during a lecture given by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in March and by the first national Employee Ownership Day on 4 July.
- The announcement at Budget 2013 of the provision of £50 million annually from 2014-15 to further incentivise the growth of the employee ownership sector.
- The re-launch of the UK Employee ownership index, which draws attention to the evidenced success of the UK publicly-quoted companies that have employee ownership.
- Model documentation and accompanying guidance for an organisation with employee ownership.
- Guidance for employees to enable them to understand the concept and how to take forward the idea within their own organisations.
- Numerous new websites giving further information on employee ownership to specific audiences.
The update also sets out the government’s next steps for promoting employee ownership, which include:
- To consider the viability of future work to identify and coordinate gaps into employee ownership research in lieu of development work on an institute.
- To review the success of some of the key outputs that have been produced.
- To continue to raise awareness and build on the success of Employee Ownership Day and other activities in a targeted way.
Graeme Nuttall (pictured), partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse and the government’s independent adviser on employee ownership, said: “There are encouraging signs that this could be the decade in which employee ownership becomes a major part of the UK economy.
“The focus is now on implementation, rather than, as it was in December 2011, attracting the attention of the government. I am obviously keen that the momentum is maintained and that all those involved in promoting employee ownership keep an active check on the progress they are making.”
Iain Hasdell, chief executive of the Employee Ownership Association, added: “At a time when employee ownership is growing, this government report marks another important step along the way towards employee ownership becoming a central part of UK industrial policy.
“I welcome the commitment and the measures contained in the government’s progress report on their moves to address the key barriers to the growth of employee ownership: namely lack of awareness, the need for simplification and difficulties in accessing finance and advice.”