Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote the use of enterprise zones by businesses.

My Department works actively with UK Trade and Investment, BIS sector leads as well as local partners to promote opportunities in Enterprise Zones to businesses across the UK and overseas. UK Trade and Investment encourages and supports overseas companies to consider Enterprise Zones as a good place to set up or expand their businesses. They do this by working to support the marketing efforts on Zones and publicising opportunities for businesses within their international networks.

This collective approach is working. By the end of 2014, more than 450 businesses had come to Enterprise Zones. Alongside this, there has been significant investment in infrastructure, including around £200 million of commitments from the Local Growth Fund. This will help to attract more businesses to Enterprise Zones in future.