Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to encourage the start up and development of small businesses in (a) Kettering, (b) Northamptonshire and (c) England.

Small and medium-sized businesses across England can access support through GOV.UK and the Business Support Helpline. Over the last three years, Government has also supported and invested in the creation of 38 Growth Hubs (one in each Local Enterprise Partnership area), providing businesses across England with tailored advice and support. To date, Growth Hubs have engaged and supported over 570,000 businesses, and helped 11,391 individuals to start a business.

Velocity Growth Hub serves businesses in the South East Midlands and operates a sub-Growth Hub for businesses based in Northamptonshire. Since 2013, the Northamptonshire Growth Hub has engaged with 4,982 businesses and helped 308 individuals to start a business, with Velocity (including Northamptonshire) having engaged a total of 87,655 businesses and helped 476 individuals to start a business since launch in 2014.

British Business Bank programmes are currently supporting almost £4 billion of finance to over 60,000 smaller businesses across the UK which includes over 51,500 Start-Up Loans worth over £366 million. Since the launch of the British Business Bank in November 2014, its programmes have facilitated over £78m to businesses in Northamptonshire. This includes 393 Start-up Loans at a value of over £2.5m. Of this figure, over £250k is supporting loans to businesses in the constituency of Kettering.

Through our Industrial Strategy, we will continue to back small and medium-sized business to grow and create jobs by providing an environment in which they can thrive.

*All British Business Bank data is current as at end of Jun 2017 except for the Start-Up Loans programme which is as at end of Oct 2017