The leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband told the Comet that “Stevenage is doing a great job for businesses” during a visit today (Monday).

The Comet: Ed Miliband arrives with Cllr Sharon Taylor at the Business and Technology Centre in StevenageEd Miliband arrives with Cllr Sharon Taylor at the Business and Technology Centre in Stevenage (Image: Archant)

Mr Miliband visited the Businesses and Technology Centre on Bessemer Drive in Stevenage to launch the Local Government Innovation Taskforce – a report that aims to promote local business and decentralise power.

The Comet: Ed Miliband speaks to Chester Mojay-Sinclare from Charity Checkout at the Business and Technology Centre in StevenageEd Miliband speaks to Chester Mojay-Sinclare from Charity Checkout at the Business and Technology Centre in Stevenage (Image: Archant)

Sharon Taylor, leader of Stevenage Borough Council, co-authored the report and accompanied him while he was introduced to several new companies based in the building including JB Consulting and Charity Checkout – an online donation business.

Mr Miliband said: “Stevenage is a place where it is doing a great job to encourage businesses to grow and I’ve met some amazing companies this morning. Thanks to a report co-authored by Sharon Taylor, leader of the council here and Labour’s parliamentary candidate, we are going to do more when Labour wins the General Election next year.

“We want to give more power to local people and local businesses that make decisions that affect them. We want to see a lot more growing businesses like I have seen today and we want to make it possible.

Cllr Taylor said: “We have a simple ambition – to make sure public services work for people. In recent years public services have been hit by the twin pressures of rising demand and less resource. This is pushing them to breaking point and without major reform they will not be viable for the future.

“With less money around, it is all the more urgent that inefficiency is driven out of the system. Too many decisions made at the centre are at a remove from people’s lives and can be poorly suited to the challenges they face. This can mean services are forced to react to problems rather than prevent them, or tackle a single aspect of complex problems.”