Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies registered within Morley and Outwood constituency have been struck off the Companies House register in the past 12 months.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Between 1st November 2021 and 31st October 2022, 575 companies with a registered office located in the Morley and Outwood parliamentary constituency were struck off the register.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 encourage entrepreneurs to set up new businesses in (a) Morley and Outwood constituency and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Paul Scully
A wide range of support and funding is available in Morley and Outwood and across West Yorkshire for businesses at all stages, from start-ups and early-stage companies to established businesses that are ready to expand and grow.
With BEIS funding support, the Leeds City Region Growth Hub provides a single point of access to a wide range of national and local support and funding, delivering impartial advice and support to businesses of all sizes and stages of growth. The Growth Hub can signpost the most effective support to individual businesses and entrepreneurs, including the following key products.
The Start Up Loans Company, part of the Government-owned British Business Bank, provides loans and pre- and post-application support to new entrepreneurs, including a year of free business mentoring for successful applicants. Since the Start Up Loans programme was launched in 2012, 123 loans have been delivered worth over £1.2m in Morley and Outwood, while across West Yorkshire 2,784 loans have been delivered worth £25.9m.
Business support in Morley and Outwood and across West Yorkshire also includes the Business Growth Programme, which comprises capital investment grants for businesses focussed on productivity, innovation, digital, resource efficiency and new start enterprises. Supported by £7m from Government’s Getting Building Fund, it is available to existing businesses and inward investors.
The Ad:Venture programme is a dedicated business start-up programme, with young West Yorkshire businesses benefitting from a tailored mix of practical advice, coaching, academic support, incubation work space, finance brokerage and low rate loans. To July 2021, 258 businesses in Leeds and 54 in Wakefield have benefitted from the programme, with £2.3m grant awarded to 471 businesses across West Yorkshire.
This support will be enhanced by an Entrepreneurship Support Package as part of the West Yorkshire Economic Recovery Plan, with boosting support for entrepreneurship across West Yorkshire a key priority. This package will use at least £6m of investment funds provided by Government through the West Yorkshire Devolution Deal and is focused on helping individuals in the region to explore and establish new businesses, including a £1m Business Start-Up Programme to assist with financial planning, business structure and tax, sales and marketing, access to finance and recruiting staff.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 reduce the waiting time for specialised transport vehicles.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We recognise the ongoing challenges facing industrialised truck and specialised vehicle manufacturing as a result of Covid-19. The Government has been supporting the economy through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and grants for research and development.
The Government regularly engages with manufacturers and manufacturing trade associations on opportunities to support the growth and competitiveness of manufacturing sectors in the UK.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 reduce the waiting time for industrial trucks.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We recognise the ongoing challenges facing industrialised truck and specialised vehicle manufacturing as a result of Covid-19. The Government has been supporting the economy through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and grants for research and development.
The Government regularly engages with manufacturers and manufacturing trade associations on opportunities to support the growth and competitiveness of manufacturing sectors in the UK.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 prevent the long-term loss of labour-market participation among people under the age of 35 as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to supporting everyone who has been affected by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the labour market. From the outset of this pandemic, we have as a country put our arms around UK workers. The Government has acted decisively to provide an amazing package of support to protect people’s jobs, businesses and livelihoods.
In order to help keep people employed and prevent the loss of labour-market participation during the pandemic we have put in place a huge package of support to businesses which has enabled them to continue operating. This includes business grants to support those required to close; the Bounce Back Loan Scheme which has seen 1.5 million loans approved worth over £46 billion; the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan scheme which has seen over 98,000 loans approved worth over £23 billion and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan scheme which has seen 716 loans approved worth £5.3 billion.
Additionally our new Recovery Loan Scheme opened for applications in April, and new Restart Grants (totalling around £3.4 billion) will support businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses in England to enable them to reopen and creating jobs as restrictions are eased.
The Government is also supporting those who have become unemployed during the pandemic back into work. Through Plan for Jobs, the Government invested over £30bn in measures to create, support and protect jobs. This included over £3bn investment in the Kickstart programme and additional 13,500 Work Coaches in our Jobcentres, as well as other measures focussed on boosting work search, skills and apprenticeships.
At the Spending Review 2020, my Rt Hon friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer agreed an additional £2.9bn funding for the Restart Scheme, to support people to find work quickly by providing intensive and tailored support to people in England and Wales who have been unemployed for over 12 months.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to develop green hydrogen production across the UK.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Low carbon hydrogen will be vital for meeting our legally binding commitment to achieving net zero by 2050, with potential to help decarbonise vital UK industry sectors and provide flexible deployment across heat, power and transport.
Working with industry, the UK is aiming for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. As we progress towards this ambition, we would hope to see around 1GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2025.
The UK has expertise and assets to support both electrolytic (green) and Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) enabled (blue) hydrogen. Our twin track approach to enable both routes will drive cost effective supply volumes in the 2020s in line with our 2030 ambition, whilst scaling up green hydrogen. This approach is already in evidence in the Government’s £121m hydrogen innovation funding programme, the development of business models to stimulate private investment and the design of the £240m Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund, confirmed out to 2025.
We will publish the first ever UK Hydrogen Strategy in the first half of this year which will set out the key steps needed in the 2020s to deliver our 5GW ambition and set the context for further scale up on the way to net zero.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 Department is taking to support British domestic capacity to produce future vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale-up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to this pandemic, as well as any future pandemics. This includes:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer-term UK capacity:
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to support the domestic exploitation of raw materials for the electric car industry.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government recognises the importance of critical raw minerals for the development of zero emission vehicles. We are committed to building an agile, innovative and cost-competitive supply chain for these vehicles in the UK to support our commitment to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030.
Batteries for electric vehicles require a range of critical materials, including lithium. Government has supported a number of initiatives to find and use lithium in the UK, including work in Cornwall to develop lithium extraction plants.
The Government is also investing £318m in the Faraday Battery Challenge to put the UK at the global forefront of the design, development, manufacturing, and recycling of electric batteries. In addition, the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) aims to develop and embed at pace the next generation of cutting-edge zero emission automotive technologies in the UK. £500m of funding for the ATF will be made available in the next four years for businesses across the UK to fund investments across the whole supply chain.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 increase the UK’s long-term ability to manufacture vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic, including:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer term UK capacity:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 support people to set up their own business once covid-19 restrictions are eased.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government aims to make the United Kingdom the best place to start, grow and run a business. The Government provides a wide range of support and information for small businesses. The main source of information is the GOV.UK website, with support also available via the Business Support Helpline on FREEPHONE 0800 998 1098 and via the network of 38 local Growth Hubs in England.
The Government understands that accessing finance can be a barrier to small and medium businesses (SMEs) starting out. This is why we established the Start Up Loans programme in 2012. For those starting a new business or for businesses which have been trading for up to 24 months, the Start Up Loans Company provides loans of between £500 to £25,000 at a competitive rate of 6%. In addition to finance, every loan recipient is offered a dedicated mentoring service and access to a free expert business mentor for 12 months to help them with every aspect of setting up a business. The Start Up Loans programme, operated by the British Business Bank, has delivered almost 77,000 loans overall in the UK, supporting nearly £650 million of funding since the programme’s launch in 2012 to the end of September 2020.
In summer 2018, the British Business Bank also launched a website that offers independent and impartial information on different finance options for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses. The site features infographics and checklists to help businesses get ‘investor ready’ as well as articles and guides from finance providers on how smaller businesses can identify and access finance suited to their growth ambitions. At its heart is the Finance Hub’s Finance Finder, a simple six-step tool that enables smaller business to explore and identify finance options suited to their needs. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Finance Hub has been updated to clearly signpost the financial support options available for businesses during this period of economic uncertainty.
Further initiatives include the BEIS-led Small Business Leadership Programme and Peer-to-Peer networks, to help businesses build resilience and grow. The Young Innovators Programme was also launched by Innovate UK and the Prince’s Trust to support young entrepreneurs with tailored mentoring and access to £5,000 funding.