Councils come together to offer £500k compliance service to businesses
Councils across Greater Manchester have come together to provide a regulatory and compliance support service to small and medium businesses.
The new Business Compliance Service will cover environmental health, trading standards and licensing regulatory functions for businesses in the foundational economy including support with food safety, product safety and labelling, fair trading, consumer rights, food labelling and premises licensing.
Julian Jackson, director of place at Tameside Metropolitan Council said: “The new service will ensure businesses can get compliance right first time and free up their time so they can innovate and grow. The service will also support businesses to reduce the risk of future enforcement action that could be financially and reputationally damaging.”
He said the service will operate across Greater Manchester to ensure businesses can access consistent compliance support regardless of the local authority in which they are based.
Robert Downes, development manager at the Federation of Small Businesses for Manchester said: “It’s really great news for small businesses in GM that all councils in the city region area have come together to embrace a new way of working. This will help some of the smallest private sector firms make sense of regulations and compliance, and take the stress out of something many business owners see as complicated and difficult, ultimately saving them time and money.”
The project has been funded by the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund, which was formed in November 2022 when the Department for Business (then BEIS) awarded Greater Manchester Regulatory Centre of Excellence (GMRCE) a grant of £503,708 to deliver Business Compliance Support in Greater Manchester.
The RPF is a grant-based fund to enable UK regulators and local authorities to help create a UK regulatory environment that encourages business innovation and investment. The current £12m round is being delivered by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology.
