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 support small businesses in Havering.

The Government provides a range of support that all small businesses can access. These include information on starting up and running a business on GOV.UK, one to one advice via our free Business Support Helpline and through 38 Growth Hubs across England,

Small businesses will also benefit from the £15 billion of targeted government support to help with the rising cost of living.

The Government has also acted to reverse the National Insurance rise, which will save small businesses £4,200 on average and brought in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will protect small businesses from high energy bills over the winter.

In addition, during Covid, the Government provided nearly £27 billion to local authorities across England through a package of business support including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, business rates relief, grants and loans. The London Borough of Havering received £92m of business grant support and reported making over 16,000 payments worth nearly £80m to their businesses.

The Start Up Loans Company, part of the Government-owned British Business Bank, provides support to new entrepreneurs. Since the Start Up Loans programme was launched in 2012, it has provided 355 loans to businesses in Havering, totalling £3,200,447.