Oral Answers to Questions

Rachel Maclean Excerpts

Tuesday 20th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)]

12. What progress he has made on meeting the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

[Rachel Maclean (Redditch) (Con)]

14. What progress he has made on meeting the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

15. What progress he has made on meeting the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

--- Later in debate ---

[Greg Clark]

I do indeed, and I congratulate Ideal Foods and the Cornish Cheese Company. Perhaps I can add one of my own: Cornish Charcuterie, based just outside Bude, is one of my favourites, and I know that it has many satisfied customers across the UK and Europe, and increasingly around the world. This shows that, of all the manifold assets that Cornwall has, its food and indeed its drink are something to boast about.

[Rachel Maclean]

More than 355 new businesses have been started up in my constituency since 2010. Many of them are microbusinesses with only one or two employees, and their needs are very different from those of the larger small and medium-sized businesses. What additional support can the Department give to those microbusinesses to help them to thrive?

[Greg Clark]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to suggest that microbusinesses, and indeed start-ups, sometimes face challenges in accessing finance. The British Business Bank has a programme to focus on microbusinesses. Start-up loans, from which 44 businesses in her constituency have benefited, are also important.