Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of garden centres on local employment and skills training; and what steps he is taking to support that sector.

The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential impact of garden centres on local employment and skills training. However, garden centres operate across retail and horticulture and can benefit from the government’s wider support for workforce development.

This government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. That is why in March we announced almost £1bn in funding taking total investment to £2.5bn to further expand the Youth Guarantee over the next 3 years. This will fund an expansion of the Jobs Guarantee scheme to include 22–24-year-olds, hiring incentives for employers recruiting young people on Universal Credit at risk of long-term unemployment, and incentives for SMEs recruiting apprentices. This will unlock nearly 200,000 opportunities for young people to start work or an apprenticeship. To support smaller businesses, we are introducing a new £2,000 incentive when non-levy payers take on 16–24-year-old apprentices as new employees.