Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help support small and medium sized businesses facing rises in business costs in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.

The Government is providing a range of support to help SMEs. Fuel duty has been cut for 12 months, Employment Allowance raised to £5,000, and VAT has been zero-rated on energy-saving materials. This compliments existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years, whilst the Help to Grow programmes enables SMEs across England to mitigate the effects of rising costs.

This work builds on support to businesses in Coventry North East and Coventry itself, including:

• Enabling Growth Hubs to support a total of 3,030 businesses of varying sizes. In addition, they helped 227 individuals to start a business;
• £6.09 million Getting Build Fund towards Completing the Cultural Capital;
• £131.84 million Local Growth Deals;
• £766,332 Community Renewal Fund.