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 his Department has taken to help businesses create more highly skilled jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber.

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 has to date awarded over £50m to support businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), which brings together world-class UK research with business investment to develop the technologies that will transform existing industries and create entirely new ones. For example, we are investing in ITM Power (Trading) Ltd in Sheffield to demonstrate the feasibility of a hydrogen economy in remote areas.

Also, since its launch in 2012, the Start-Up Loans programme, part of the British Business Bank, has delivered more than 5,200 loans, totalling £42.690m in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Government is also investing over £1.3 billion through Yorkshire and Humber Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deals and has established Enterprise Zones across the region, which are both supporting the creation of higher skilled jobs such as Siemens’ offshore wind blade factory in Hull and at the Humber Enterprise Park in Brough.