Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support the (a) creation and (b) growth of start-ups in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England.

We will publish our Small Business Strategy later this year with a clear ambition to promote startups and encourage entrepreneurship, built around the new Business Growth Service.

Start Up Loans are available in Cheshire and across England, helping new and early-stage businesses access affordable finance. Mid Cheshire businesses have benefited from 168 of these loans between 2012 and January 2025.

Existing support offers include Help to Grow: Management - UK, providing practical ways to enhance small business productivity and growth, and the British Business Bank's Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II delivering a £660 million commitment of new funding to smaller businesses across the North.