Self-employed: West Midlands
(asked on 6th February 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps her Department is taking to support self-employed people in the West Midlands.
We want to make sure that the UK is the best place in the world to work and grow a business. Our long-term plan is to support entrepreneurs, including self-employed individuals who are running or considering starting up a business, not just in the West Midlands, but in all parts of the UK.
That’s why we are backing businesses right across the country, with 381,000 new businesses starting last year, and the government-owned British Business Bank supporting over 91,000 SMEs with £7 billion of finance.
The British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme provides?loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. The British Business Bank delivered more than 69,000 Start-Up Loans?since 2012, providing more than £558m of funding, in every part of the United Kingdom
The West Midlands has received 5,788 loans totalling over £44.8m and your constituency of Sutton Coldfield has received 101 loans totalling over £878,000.
Additionally, self-employed business people can access tailored advice and support through the 38 local Growth Hubs. They can also access support?through our Gov.uk website and the Business Support Helpline (0300 456 3565).
The West Midlands Local Industrial Strategy, published in May 2019, sets out a shared ambition to build on the region’s distinctive strengths to drive growth and ensure that all communities benefit from that growth, including the self-employed.
Self-employed mothers who qualify for Maternity Allowance are also now able to share parental leave and pay with an employed father or partner.
In addition, the Government has increased the personal allowance from £11,500 to £12,500 (benefiting employed and self-employed taxpayers) and self-employed people are now able to build their entitlement to the new State Pension at the same rate as employed people.