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 increase support for businesses in Stevenage.

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are playing a vital role in driving forward economic growth across the country, helping to build a country that works for everyone. That’s why by 2021 Government will have invested over £12bn through the Local Growth Fund, allowing LEPs to use their local knowledge to get all areas of the country firing on all cylinders.

The Government will have invested £160m Growth Deal funding in Hertfordshire by 2021, and the LEP was allocated £16.2m Growing Places Funding. The LEP has prioritised spending on science, research and innovation, developing skills, cultivating world-leading sectors and supporting businesses to start up and grow. In Stevenage, this has included allocating £1.2m to the Airbus Foundation Discovery Space.

Since 2012, the Start-Up Loans Programme has delivered 71 loans in Stevenage, worth £487, 289 to small businesses.