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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to help businesses to create more highly skilled jobs in the East Midlands.

The Industrial Strategy is our long-term plan to boost productivity by backing businesses to create high-quality, well paid jobs throughout the United Kingdom, with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure. The Government is supporting businesses in the East Midlands through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which brings together world-class UK research with business investment to develop the technologies that will transform existing industries and create entirely new ones. We have to date allocated £6m of ISCF grant funding to projects in the East Midlands and already support a wider range of projects in the East Midlands. For example, we support a robotics project based with the University of Nottingham, in partnership with businesses based at the National Space Centre in Leicester, which is dedicated to investigating the potential of manufacturing in space; which could enable the in-orbit manufacture of replacement parts and tools.

Also, since its launch in 2012, the Start-Up Loans programme, part of the British Business Bank, has delivered more than 59,000 loans, totalling over £450m. 65 Start-Up Loans have been provided to the Mansfield constituency with a total value of £488,200.

Another example of our help to local businesses to create more highly skilled jobs in East Midlands, is through the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). They are developing Local Industrial Strategies setting out how they will support the growth in their local economies.Through the Midlands Engine Strategy, we are investing in skills, industries, and infrastructure to boost productivity and create highly skilled jobs. One such instrument is the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, which provides over £250 million to support small businesses to grow. Examples of investments made by LEPs across the East Midlands that are designed to support businesses to create more highly skilled jobs include:

• D2N2 LEP’s £5 million Local Growth Fund investment in the recently opened University of Nottingham’s Advanced Manufacturing Building shows the Industrial Strategy in action. The state-of-the-art facility will benefit the East Midlands and the whole UK economy by driving innovation, supporting manufacturing businesses of all sizes to thrive and crucially equipping people to secure highly skilled jobs.
• A collaboration between the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Derby City Council and the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership has seen the recent opening of a research and innovation centre for cutting-edge nuclear technology on the Infinity Park Enterprise Zone; helping to boost local jobs, growth and expertise.
• The Boole Technology Centre on the Lincoln Science and Technology Park has been supported by £3.4m Local Growth Fund; providing laboratory, workshop and office space targeting high-growth SMEs in advanced engineering and manufacturing.
• The Mira Technical Institute based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, has been supported by £9.5m of Local Growth Fund. Based on MIRA Technology park, MTI will enable delivery of specialist skills and qualifications to industry leaders, engineers, technicians and other professionals across the automotive sector, that are key to fuelling their career ambitions and their employer’s business success.