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You remember that particularly exciting moment in the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace. After a thrilling rooftop chase, Bond catches up with the baddie in the dome of some beautiful Renaissance church.
They wrestle on the top of some scaffolding and then tumble to the ground, and as you watch the smashing glass and the crashing masonry, you ask yourself how on earth they filmed it.
Why, you wonder, did the municipality of Siena consent to this destruction? And the answer is, of course, that they did not consent. Bond and the bad guy weren't even in Siena.
They were filmed here in London, and most of the scene wasn't even filmed, my friends. Each fragment of glass, each chunk of flying Sienese fresco and even the gun that spirals from Bond's hand as he falls were all generated on computers by technicians in the middle of Soho.
They were created by Framestore, a company with no serious rival outside California. As I went round their offices yesterday, and I saw dozens of hip-looking young people crowded around their machines, I reflected on the fantastic diversity and strength of the London economy.
Never mind the City (the importance of which I am proud to defend, and which will bounce back).
Look at London's creative and media industries, which earn about £9 billion for this country. London not only leads the world in financial services.
It leads the world in higher education, medical science, law, accountancy - and according to the World Bank it is one of the best places on earth for new businesses to start.
Framestore now has 600 employees. They make a pretty penny. They win Oscars. But 20 years ago there were only four people. It was an idea that turned into a world-beater, but it began as a small business.
Those small businesses are the backbone of the London economy because in its range and its ceaseless creativity the London economy is the mirror image of somewhere like Newcastle upon Tyne.
I mean no disrespect to Newcastle, but in Newcastle, 70 per cent of jobs are in the public sector. In London 70 per cent of jobs are in the private sector - and roughly half those London jobs are generated by the 335,000 small businesses, and when I say small, I mean small.
Almost 90 per cent of London's small businesses have fewer than 10 employees. It is vital that we help them in any way we can, and that is why City Hall, the Police and Transport for London are all now paying our contractors within 10 days.
That is why the London Development Agency has been running seminars to help show SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) how to access credit, how to present a business plan and how to take advantage of sterling's fall by marketing their products overseas.
And whatever you think of the wisdom of the phrase "green shoots", the fact is that London's SMEs are showing extraordinary signs of resilience and a willingness to innovate.
According to a recent survey by Business Link, 60 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses are intending to grow next year, and 17 per cent hope to market new products and services.
The Federation of Small Businesses tells me that in spite of the unemployment figures, confidence is coming back, and credit is at last starting to flow.
So we should recognise the vital role these small businesses are playing in the economic fightback, and we should never forget the old gag: that the best way to run a small business under a Labour government is to start with a large one.
We can help small businesses by drawing their attention to opportunities - such as the 65,000 contracts that are potentially going to be generated by the Olympics, and which can be registered for on the CompeteFor website.
But the best thing we politicians can do is get off their backs, and give them the right framework to flourish and expand.
That means avoiding bad regulation - and it seems demented that the Government in the form of Harriet Harman is seriously proposing a new rights-based employment law just when we should be making it as easy as possible to hire new workers.
That means not imposing new tax rates that risk driving away talent to competitor jurisdictions, and it means not jacking up business rates. It means investing in the skills of Londoners - above all basic literacy and numeracy - and in the transport infrastructure that will make London the cleanest, greenest, safest and most attractive place to live and invest.
Get those things right, and Londoners will bring the innovation and the entrepreneurship. At Framestore I talked to a woman called Marion, who created - on a computer in London - the hideous burned visage of Harvey Dent, the anti-hero in the Batman film The Dark Knight.
"Are you a computer programmer or an artist?" I asked her. "I'm both," she replied. The point is that she was doing a job that did not exist 20 years ago, a trade in which London now beats the rest of the planet.
The energy and enterprise of London's business sector led Britain out of recession in the 1930s. Give Londoners the right support, and they will do so again.
Reader views (12)
Saying that Framestore is a company with no serious rival outside California is to ignore other large VFX companies in Soho such as Moving Picture Company, Double Negative and Cinesite. There is a world-leading industry here, not just one company...
- Nick, London, 15/05/2009 10:06
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Well said Boris! Your gentle jibe at Newcastle could also be applied to Plymouth another Stalinist City State where a bloated Public Sector stiffles private business. Oh that we could have an elected Mayor down here to help our small srtuggling SME community
- Stephen, Plymouth, 14/05/2009 20:12
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Thanks Boris. It's nice to be appreciated, for once.
- Gary Hodes, London UK, 14/05/2009 18:48
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Would these be small businesses where the husband is a contracxtor and hi wife and kids are employees so that he can minimise his Tax bill? I worked for a Company that employed IT Contractors who were always pleased to point out that they were not only paid more but were also able to benefit from tax dodges.
- Jjones, Ruislip England, 14/05/2009 17:15
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While you're at it Boris, why don't you review the draconian parking laws imposed by Westminster Council that prevent delivery drivers and suppliers in Central London parking for more than two minutes without being given an extortionate fine for their efforts. And permitting marches through Piccadilly on Saturday does a fine job of killing off any business in an area the size of a square mile on what should be the busiest retail day of the year.
- Paul Taylor, London., 14/05/2009 16:49
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Well done Boris! Now would Terry Leahy pop over to West Hampstead and give support to the small businesses he started to strangle at 6.ooam, yesterday morning, when he opened yet another store that wasn't required.
My sincere thoughts are for the West Hampstead Loyal Traiers who have served this community for many years.
- Maria, London, 14/05/2009 15:27
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I'm not entirely sure how Boris finds time to write these articles, I thought being Mayor of London was a full-time job!?
He's already stated that London is one of the best places in the world for starting a new business (backed up by the World Bank) surely there's nothing more to be said? No... wait he attacks the government (in the form of Harman) quell surprise. I click the link and it takes me to articles linked to Harman, so anything with her mentioned but nothing about a rights based employment bill, that's just lazy hyper-linking, Boris stick to being a politician will you, please.
possibly he's referring to this article:
http://tinyurl.com/PAINTERCOM2
Which seems perfectly fine to me. who wouldn't want to be able to employ who they want so long as they are equally skilled?
Boris has been in for just over a year and Dan, from London, I don't think it was a case of him being voted in as much as Livingstone fans failing to vote, which I guess takes the sheen off a win I guess. Anyhow, implementing change on a city should be compared to turning and oil tanker, I don't believe there is anything that we can see from the Mayor's first year that is of any note.
Do you think he writes this column to point out anything he's failed to do or how he should be spending more time as a politician and not writing shallow, self-congratulatory, sychophantic articles? No? Though not.
- Paintercom, London, 14/05/2009 15:16
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I couldn't agree more Boris - I've just set up a company providing landlords with EPCs, HIPs, gas & electrical safety certificates for London property owners, and the last thing I need is yet more overbearing and unnecessary interference from a clueless govt at a time when all I want to do is create, build and sustain a company that will hopefully contribute to the fabric of business in this city.
Don't punish those who try and keep the economy ticking, help us out now and again!
Declan www.homecert-direct.com
- Declan, London, 14/05/2009 15:09
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Well I'm hoping that all these new government incentives will help me as I have just recently set up my own business offering Architectural Services and 3D Visualisation.
People are saying that I'm mad in trying to do what I do in such bleak times, but myself see it as an oppertunity to win jobs as clients seem to breaking away from their usual set of designers and are branching out looking for more quality quotes from smaller businesses.
I just wish that the government would offer more useful grants so that people like myself looking to set up in the CAD industry were capable of buying all the necessary licenses for the software they need, rather than having to work off old licenses which have been made obsolete by developers. Maybe they can pass some sort of law onto developers like Autodesk forcing them to bring the cost of their licenses down to something more affordable for small businesses
Anyway good look to me and any other entrepaneur trying to make something of themselves in this so called recession.
James Pegg
- James Pegg, Derby, 14/05/2009 14:09
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As a small business owner I constantly cough-up tax and business rates but get little in return. We are buried in regulations and paperwork that make the economy no better off but keeps petty, box ticking, clipborad carrying officials in gold plated guaranteed pensions.
The local authority and government are only interested in collecting money from me and repeatedly asking what 'ethnicity' I am but are not interested in turnover or number of employees. (Just for the record, I always tell the nosey officials that I am ‘Jedi.’)
Grants and development loans are fine but are targeted to such specific regions and groups that small businesses with potential are unlikely to qualify. Less regulation, less tax and business rates and an improved ‘loan guarantee’ scheme would be a start.
- Ben, W1, London, 14/05/2009 14:09
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Well done yet again Boris!
Thank you for doing what this lousy,stinking,disgraceful and rotten Nu-Labour sham has failed to do - support local businesses which are the real lifeblood of our communities and society.
ZaNu-Labour have ruthlessly crushed small, traditional businesses with suffocating bureacracy and punishing taxation, in favour of supporting faceless goliaths like Tesco.
As a loyal Londonder I am passionate about our local high streets and do whatever I can to support local, friendly and family run businesses.
Well done again Boris - keep up the good work.
This is why London voted you for Mayor!
- Dan, London, UK, 14/05/2009 14:09
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But small businesses are not getting ANY support from the goverment, the rates went up 5% this year alone
- Mario Kempe, london, 14/05/2009 14:09
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