Business, Innovation and Skills written question – answered at on 20 November 2012.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what support he is providing to entrepreneurs in (a) Barnsley Central constituency and (b) South Yorkshire who want to start their own business.
We want to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business, and for the next decade to be the most entrepreneurial and dynamic in Britain's history. The Government's vision is for many more people in the UK to have the opportunity, aspiration and motivation to use their talent and initiative to be enterprising.
Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) took place last week (12-
In January, the Prime Minister launched “Business in You”, a major campaign to inspire people to realise their business ambitions. We have changed the way that we help entrepreneurs access the information, guidance and advice they need to start and grow a business. We have put in place a range of services including:
The new home for Government services and information online:
www.gov.uk has been built to make it simpler and faster for people to find what they need from Government. To help those that cannot use internet services, we will continue to offer support through the Business Link helpline (on 0845 6009006).
A mentoring portal:
www.mentorsme.co.uk providing an easy route to find experienced business mentors.
A new three year Growth Accelerator programme which will provide high quality coaching support for up to 26,000 small businesses with high growth potential.
The Government are also ensuring entrepreneurs can access the finance they need by:
In September, we announced a new Government-backed business bank, including new Government funding of £1 billion. It will aim to attract private sector funding so that, when fully operational, it could support up to £10 billion of new and additional business lending. More detail on the design of the bank and the types of interventions it will support will be provided later in the autumn.
In July, the Government and Bank of England launched the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), which allows banks and building societies to borrow at cheaper rates from the Bank of England for periods of up to four years. The FLS creates strong incentives for banks to increase lending to UK households and businesses by lowering interest rates and increasing access to credit.
In May we launched a new £10 million Start-Up Loan Scheme aimed at 18 to 24-year-olds.
We have increased the funds available to invest through the Business Finance Partnership (BFP) to £1.2 billion. Government will allocate £100 million of the BFP to invest through non-traditional lending channels that can reach smaller businesses.
The Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme will continue until 2014/15, providing, subject to demand, over £2 billion of additional lending.
We have established a £50 million Business Angel Co-Investment Fund to encourage Business Angel investment.
We are increasing our commitment to our Enterprise Capital Funds programme by £200 million, providing for more than £300 million of venture capital investment to address the equity gap for early stage innovative SMEs.
Local Support
The Government has also worked with Local Enterprise Partners (LEPs) to ensure they understand the availability of Government's support to business. Many LEPs have the promotion of enterprise, access to finance and business growth as key strategic priorities. The Leeds and North Yorkshire LEP, for example, runs a mentoring programme via the Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.
Yes1 person thinks so
No1 person thinks not
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