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 small businesses in (a) Haltemprice and Howden constituency and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Government is committed to supporting all entrepreneurs to start and grow a business, to create jobs and spread prosperity.

In the North Yorkshire and Humber regions businesses can access support through www.gov.uk, the Business Support Helpline (0300 456 3565) and their local Growth Hubs (York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Growth Hub and Humber Growth Hub). These are led and governed by the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding and the Humber Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). Growth Hubs provide a free, impartial, ‘single point of contact’ to help businesses in these areas identify and access the right support for them at the right time no matter their size or sector. In 2018-2019 the two Growth Hubs supported 14,939 businesses and helped 81 new businesses to start up.

In addition, within the Humber LEP area, the ‘Growing the Humber’ business investment programme has supported the creation of over 2,800 jobs to date. This signposts anyone interested to a range of business support information, as well as to organisations that provide a wide variety of services, including funding, support, advice, mentoring and business services who can help business start-up, survive and thrive.

The Department for International Trade in Yorkshire and the Humber works with a network of International Trade Advisers and partners across the region to enable local businesses to showcase their products and services overseas, with their Northern Powerhouse team running bespoke Trade missions. Since April 2016, there have been 68 Northern Powerhouse missions to 19 countries, supporting 1,252 companies. As we leave the EU, they will be working to deepen our trading ties with overseas markets to maximise export opportunities for small businesses.

The British Business Bank (BBB) with a consortia of LEPs manages the £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), which celebrated the milestone of having invested £100m in 385 Northern-based SMEs. This support addresses the disparity in availability of regional finance was further bolstered last autumn, with a £100m Business Angel investment programme was launched to support clusters of business angels outside London.

The BBB has also established a UK-wide Network of regional managers working with business support partners, delivering advice tailored to local needs.

The Government-backed British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. Since 2012, 5,875 loans have been issued in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, totalling over £49m, and with an average loan amount of £8,459. In the Haltemprice and Howden constituency, 108 loans have been issued, totalling over £974,000 (as at end-December 2019).