BURY and Bolton business leaders claim the Government has missed a vital opportunity in new plans just announced.

These involve proposals for post-16 education and training, and initial ideas for the formation of a national Small Business Service.

The Chamber says these plans place training and enterprise at the centre of the Government agenda.

But, they stress, the proposals fail to link the two issues.

Chamber chief executive Richard Bindless said: "Training and enterprise go hand in glove, so we are extremely disappointed that the Government has not used this opportunity to join up its thinking and action on these two key areas - and deliver the vision for a knowledge driven economy that it set out in its recent Competitiveness White Paper.

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