Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to support small businesses in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. Small businesses across the West Midlands will benefit from the £105 million the area has received from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which ramps up to £1.5bn this coming year. This will enable the West Midlands to invest in business support, people and wider regeneration.
The Government also funds a network of 37 Growth Hubs across England to give free support and advice to businesses. Additionally, the Made Smarter Adoption programme, which has been operating in multiple regions including the West Midlands, helps manufacturing SMEs adopt advanced digital technology and is being expanded to further regions in England in 2025/26.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government has taken to promote innovation by SMEs (a) across the country and (b) in the North East.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government is acting decisively to enable all businesses to innovate. It has launched new Prosperity Partnerships, invested a further £25m in the Connecting Capability Fund, and in financial year 2021-22 supported more than 850 SME manufacturing firms with almost 150 digital transformation projects through Made Smarter Adoption – including in the North East.
The North East boasts innovative SMEs like cleantech business Nova Pangaea Technologies, which has secured Innovate UK grant funding, Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund equity investment, and Department for Transport funding. It is also home to Teesside Freeport, which will become a cluster of innovation in the region.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to maximise the awareness of the Made Smarter Adoption North East scheme among SMEs in the manufacturing sector; and what progress he has made on establishing the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of that scheme.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The North East Local Enterprise Partnership and Tees Valley Combined Authority are jointly working to promote the scheme via local press, social media, e-newsletters, their websites, and targeted campaigns. The Made Smarter Adoption model is being independently evaluated through the Made Smarter North West Pilot, which ran from 2019 to 2021.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding will be allocated to the Made Smarter Adoption North East scheme; and how many (a) small and (b) medium sized businesses that scheme will support.
Answered by Paul Scully
BEIS is making £0.6m of funding available for Made Smarter Adoption support for SME manufacturers into the North East which will play a crucial role in delivering key BEIS and Government objectives.
This funding will support recovery and resilience following Covid-19; create long term growth for manufacturers by driving productivity and competitiveness and encourage more firms to get on the road to innovation; support levelling up across the North East and help drive down carbon emissions from manufacturing sectors.
The £0.6m funding will enable around 100 manufacturing SMEs in this region to gain increased awareness of industrial digitalisation with 88 in the region being able to access intensive advice. This is projected to generate a net GVA increase of £3.1m and in turn generate a discounted Net Social Benefit (NSB) of £1.9m. There will not be separate ring-fenced funding allocations for (a) small and (b) medium sized firms.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Made Smarter scheme has been rolled-out across the country.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Since January 2019, BEIS has piloted support to help manufacturing SMEs adopt industrial digital technology to increase their productivity, efficiency and resilience through the Made Smarter North West Pilot, which to date has engaged with more than 1,100 SME manufacturers and more than 150 are receiving intensive support with grant funding. This support is currently only available in the North West of England. Roll out to other parts of England remains under discussion informed by learning from the pilot exercise.
We welcome the strong interest we have seen from local partners in delivering Made Smarter support for adoption of technology in their regions. BEIS has held productive conversations with local partners on their expressions of interest, including in the North East, and I look forward to the continuation of these discussions.
Alongside this support, we are also investing £147m through the Manufacturing Made Smarter Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. This is accessible to manufacturers of all sizes right across the UK and aims to drive innovation in industrial digital technology solutions. A £20m Challenge Fund competition to support increased digitalisation of supply chains was concluded in October, and Innovation Hubs to help manufacturers explore and test digital technology are being piloted across the country, including through the Centre for Process Innovation at both Darlington and Sedgefield.