What does it take to create a job?

No, I mean – what does it really take?

We have about 120,000 unemployed people in the London Thames Gateway. We also have about 120,000 businesses. If every one of those businesses were to create just one job, we could banish unemployment in east London.

Okay, that’s maybe a mite simplistic. Whichever way you look at it, though, if every business in east London created just one job, that could provide employment opportunity for most of our people.

Of course, it’s not enough to know the need – to get the jobs, we also need to fulfil that need. So, is there anyone who could say “If you tell us what you need to create just one job, we’ll provide it, or help you get it”?

Well, yes, actually. Including Government departments, councils, enterprise agencies and the rest of us, there must be 30 organisations in east London to help business do better. And that’s without counting all the private sector consultants and advisers who do that stuff anyway for money.

Some of those organisations are already doing good work. Just not enough of them. Otherwise, we’d have no unemployment, right? If the 120,000 businesses could tell us exactly what they need to create just one job each, then the great army of business support ought to be able to find it.

So, here is my two-fold challenge for east London....

Firstly, I challenge those 120,000 businesses to describe exactly what it would take for each of them to create just one job. And I don’t mean a grant – I’m talking about what would generate sufficient profitability to justify paying one more permanent employee. More sales? Lower costs? Tighter credit management?

Secondly, I challenge the great business support network to fulfil those business needs. And I don’t mean writing a strategy or forming a committee or pointing people to a website. I mean sitting down with a business person in their office or factory or home, listening to them, and giving them information, advice and assistance that makes an immediate difference to their business.

We may not be able to create 120,000 jobs in east London in a single year or even three or four. Yet, to get the kind of private sector job creation we need to lift us back into business growth, we need to get real and get moving.

So let’s do it. Let’s get every business to take the East London Job Challenge right now, and tell us what they need to create just one job. And then let’s help them do it.