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 support job creation schemes in the Jarrow constituency.

The Government has funded the provision of tailored advice and support through the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Hub, which aims to grow the number and quality of jobs across the North East, including Jarrow.

This growth hub has a particular focus on scale-up businesses. In 2014, the North East LEP estimates that the area had 420 scale-up businesses employing 15,500 people with a combined turnover of £1.8billion. A third of the increase in the value of goods and services produced in the North East during 2014 can be attributed to these 420 scaleups.

While the North East economy has seen significant business growth in the past two years, we are supporting the Local Enterprise Partnership in their ambition to do even better by increasing the number of scale-up businesses in the North East LEP area by 50% by 2024, creating 6,000 more jobs.