Successful clusters cannot be developed in isolation.  There are a number of cross-cutting issues which will have an effect on cluster development. These issues include:

· The role of Higher Education Institutes
· Skills
· Access to finance
· Planning

Higher Education Institutes

Higher Education Institutes Exploiting science and technology has a crucial role in cluster development. In the future, the most successful clusters will be those which excel at generating and disseminating knowledge and exploiting it commercially.

The DTI is therefore encouraging higher education institutes (HEIs) to play a more active role in the business world, primarily through the work of the Office of Science and Innovation (OSI) which is responsible for knowledge transfer/exploitation funding programmes such as the Higher Education Innovation Fund,  which aims to encourage greater exploitation of science.

The publication Clusters: Higher Education and Business Collaborating for Success provides further information on the kind of collaboration that can take place between higher education and businesses from a wide range of industrial sectors.

Skills

Business today demands people with high-level skills who can adapt quickly to changing requirements. Success in delivering those skills will depend on joint action from Government, employers and individuals: all must be actively engaged in skills development. New services have been created to provide timely and flexible solutions to support this change.  Examples of these services are:

• Learndirect

• Learning and Skills Council

• Skills for Business Network

In July 2003, a new cross-government Skills Strategy was published as the White Paper 21st Century Skills Realising Our Potential. This was led by the Department for Eduction and Science (DfES), but written jointly with DTI. It sets out how the Government, employers and individuals can create a demand-led education and training system that will raise the skills of the nation. It also identifies the importance of enhancing skills and innovation within clusters and supply chains.

Access to finance

The Small Business Service (SBS) operates a number of schemes and initiatives that are designed to help small businesses in a variety of ways, including ways to enable them to access finance more readily. Information on sources of finance aimed specifically at small businesses can be found on the business link website. 

Planning

In July 2000, the DETR published a research report Planning for Clusters which looked at the impact of planning on clusters. This work fed into the review of the planning system being carried out by the ODPM, which led to the publication of a Planning Green Paper in December 2001.