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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support local businesses in (a) Coventry and (b) the West Midlands.

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, delivered 68,000 diagnostic interventions and helped 11,391 individuals to start a business.

Since launch, the six Growth Hubs in the West Midlands have supported over 37,500 businesses; delivered over 2,200 intensive diagnostics; and helped over 1,850 individuals to start a business. Of these, the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub has supported over 2,530 businesses; delivered 380 intensive diagnostics and helped 415 individuals to start a business.

In addition, the recently launched £250 million Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), provides finance to help smaller business across the Midlands to start up and grow, helping realise the region’s potential to achieve economic growth through enterprise. As at March 2018, it had made 6 investments into 6 SMEs in the West Midlands with £203k invested.

Aligned to this, the Midlands Engine Strategy sets out our actions to date and the next steps to deliver our vision for the Midlands by tackling local productivity barriers. This includes; £392m for Midland's projects to accelerate local growth, bringing the total Growth Deal Funding for the Midlands to nearly £1.9 billion, a flagship £20 million Midlands Skills Challenge to improve skills across the Midlands, £4 million to support the Midlands Engine Partnership to deepen their excellent work.

Furthermore, programmes operated by the government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) are supporting £4 billion of finance to over 65,000 smaller businesses (as at end Sept 2017). Since the launch of the British Business Bank in November 2014, its programmes have facilitated over £607m to businesses in the West Midlands. Of this figure, over £75m has supported businesses in Coventry*. Additionally, since 2012, the Start-up Loans programme has made over 4,500 loans totalling over £31m in the West Midlands, this includes 244 loans totalling over £1.5m in Coventry**.

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.

*BBB figures minus SUL are as at end of December 2017

** SUL figures at end of December 2017