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 boost business investment in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.

We aim to make the UK the best place in the world to start, run and grow a business. The Government provides a wide range of support and information for small businesses including on the GOV.UK website. Free and impartial advice is also available via the Business Support Helpline on FREEPHONE 0800 998 1098 and via the network of 38 local Growth Hubs in England.

The Start Up Loans Programme, part of the Government-backed British Business Bank, offers loans up to £25,000, repayable at 6% per annum across 1-5 years. Across the UK, 81,608 loans have been made, worth over £707.6m from the programme’s launch in 2012 to the end of February 2021.

Over the same period, in the Coventry North East constituency, 136 loans have been made worth £1,120,379. In the Coventry City Council area, 377 loans have been made to a value of £3,436,907. In England, 71,207 loans have been made worth £617,745,993.^[1]

My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that a further £5bn is being made available through Restart Grants to help businesses as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. This means a total of £25bn has been allocated to direct business grants during the course of the pandemic.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) self-reported that in 2019-20, its Growth Hub engaged with 66,452 businesses/individuals (including via digital channels); directly supported 1,798 businesses, of which 77 received over 12 hours of high-level support; and helped 648 individuals start a business.

Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) have benefitted from £131.84m in Local Growth Fund, over 3 Growth Deals, and the investments have secured over £28m in private sector investment. The LEP are also working with local partners to develop and implement a newly focused, partnership-led Strategic Framework to reset the local economy for a successful, inclusive, and resilient future. The LEP are committed to driving activities to minimise the negative economic impacts of Covid-19 in Coventry and Warwickshire. This includes the Growth Hub, which offers one-to-one advice and ongoing support to local businesses.

Coventry has also received over £8m funding to support it as the City of Culture 2021. The City of Culture events in Coventry are due to start in May of this year, which will benefit the city in many ways. In previous years this has included increases in investors opening new businesses and more opportunities to support the local community.

The Government’s new ‘Help to Grow’ scheme will help small businesses across the UK learn new skills, reach new customers, and boost profits. Help to Grow: Management will provide intensive management skills support to 30,000 small businesses whilst Help to Grow: Digital could support 100,000 small businesses with online advice and a voucher for software costs. BEIS will be engaging with stakeholders shortly but businesses can register their interest now at https://helptogrow.campaign.gov.uk/.

[1] Figures do not include regions not able to be specified. For these regions,113 loans were made worth 1,205,641 since 2012 to end February 2021.