South: Thames Valley Berkshire LEP comments on campaign to boost small businesses

Business secretary Vince Cable has kicked off a wave of activity to aid the growth of small companies, including unveiling the first funding allocation from the British Business Bank’s investment programme and launching a campaign to help small firms grow.

The first £45 million of funding is to be committed to Praesidian Capital Europe (£30m) and BMS Finance (£15m) to provide debt finance of approximately £125m through their respective new funds. Once legal terms are agreed it is expected that both funds will start lending to small businesses in early 2014.

In addition to this, Cable also set out other measures that will provide support to small businesses. These include:

• A new £1m Sector Mentoring Challenge Fund that will enable firms to benefit from support and advice from experienced business people in their own field of work
• A £10m synthetic biology start-up fund from the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) to help entrepreneurial scientists working in synthetic biology get their business off the ground
• The successful Growth Accelerator scheme, which provides specialised coaching to small businesses with high-growth potential, will have helped 10,000 firms in the coming weeks.

Cable said: “We have set out a comprehensive package of measures that will address the concerns of small firms. The first investments from the British Business Bank’s investment programme will provide choice to smaller businesses looking to secure vital finance to help invest. Alongside cutting red tape and increasing the take up of business rate relief, the Government has already made significant progress in improving the business outlook for small firms and entrepreneurs.”

A new business support website, www.greatbusiness.gov.uk, will also make it easy to access the services and products, including Manufacturing Advice Service, National Apprenticeship Service and Growth Accelerator, that help businesses grow. The website will be supported by an advertising campaign showcasing the very best in British small businesses, to help inspire other small businesses to take steps to grow. This is the first domestic use of the GREAT campaign.

Amanda Gee, chair of the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP SME Action Group, commented: “With around 40,000 SMEs in Thames Valley Berkshire, their success and growth is a key driver of our local economy, which in turn contributes a significant return to the Exchequer. Government’s ‘Business is GREAT’ campaign provides the additional resources that businesses need to succeed and the LEP fully endorses its aim to help all organisations build business plans, spot opportunities and develop export. The initiative perfectly complements what the LEP is currently doing on a sub regional level with its Growing Places Fund and Thames Valley Berkshire Funding Escalator to encourage growth and future job creation.”

At the start of 2013 there were an estimated 791,000 private sector businesses in the South East. Forty successful Regional Growth Fund (RGF) applications were received across the East, South East and London, worth £240m, with RGF expected to generate up to £1.4 billion of private sector investment, creating or safeguarding up to 42,000 jobs in the region. In addition 1,552 businesses in the South East have signed up to GrowthAccelerator, which sees proven business experts working with companies to coach and identify barriers to growth and ways to overcome them.

There are 4.9 million small businesses in the UK, and providing them with the tools they need to thrive is an important task for Government to ensure the recovery of the economy. In December, the Government will publish a strategy for small businesses with the ambition to grow, setting out how it will make it easier for them to do so through a range of measures, including improving access to finance and help to export and innovate.