Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department provides to people in the Leeds City Region who wish to start their own business.
Answered by Margot James
The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership Growth Service connects entrepreneurs and businesses to the right help for their needs. It works with public and private sector partners – for example, chambers of commerce, universities, the national Business Support Helpline and banks – to refer businesses to the appropriate expert advice and support, including Start Up loans and the Start and Grow programme. The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership Growth Service is one of 39 growth hubs across the country that receives funding from my Department.
58,000 businesses were newly registered for VAT or PAYE in the Leeds City Region during 2010 to 2014.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to promote opportunities to access high growth markets abroad to businesses in the Leeds City Region.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Increasing exports, to all overseas markets, is a key factor in the Government’s long-term economic plan. Government departments are working together to support UK businesses looking to take advantage of overseas opportunities and to create a strong business environment that allows them to flourish both at home and overseas. A key part of this work is to identify export opportunities, many of which are based around the needs of high-growth and emerging markets.
This effort to drive economic growth is supported in part by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme, a group of appointed parliamentarians drawn from across the political spectrum. Envoys are carefully selected for their experience, skills and knowledge of particular sectors or markets, or their knowledge of business in an effort to identify substantial trade and investment opportunities. There are now 24 Trade Envoys covering 50 high-growth and emerging markets.
In addition, UK Trade and Investment is working on a joint international trade plan with Leeds City Region and other partners which will focus on key international markets, including high growth ones.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support small and medium-sized businesses in areas that have recently been affected by flooding.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Following this winter’s severe flooding across northern England, including Calderdale, this Government put in place a comprehensive response and Calderdale has already received over £9.8 million in funding for business and community support.
Specifically for small and medium sized businesses there are three ways we are helping:
- giving flooded businesses business rates relief (£1.6 million for Calderdale)
- providing business recovery grants to help deal with exceptional costs borne by flooded businesses (£1.55 million paid out to businesses to date); and
- grants to incorporate greater flood resilience into any repairs undertaken by flooded businesses, helping to reduce the future impacts of flooding (£52,000 paid out to date to homes and businesses in Calderdale).
Other measures such as getting roads, bridges and rail services back working again and repairing and improving flood defences are also clearly a significant help. This includes the £5.5 m to repair Elland Bridge and to provide a temporary footbridge in the interim.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the number of new apprenticeships in Calder Valley constituency in each of the next four years.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Department does not produce estimates of future Apprenticeship starts by Parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many smart (a) electric and (b) gas meters have been installed in Calderdale since the smart meter programme started; and what estimate she has made of the total savings achieved by consumers as a result of the smart meter programme to date.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of smart electricity and gas meters installed in Great Britain is set out in the Government’s ‘Smart Meters, Great Britain, Quarterly report to end September 2015’, published on 22 December 2015:
The roll-out is making good progress with more than 2 million meters now operating under the Programme.
Currently, data is published only at Great Britain level. Data is not collected from energy suppliers in a format that allows constituency- or local authority-level data to be produced.
In March 2015 DECC published research on the effects of the early roll-out of smart meters – The Early Learning Project:
This project found reductions in energy consumption consistent with DECC’s steady state projections for domestic consumers. The projections are 2.8% for electricity (prepayment and credit), 2% for gas (credit) and 0.5% for gas (prepayment).
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is providing to businesses to increase exports to developing economies.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Increasing exports, to all overseas markets, is a key factor in the Government’s long-term economic plan. Government departments are working together to support UK businesses looking to take advantage of overseas opportunities and to create a strong business environment that allows them to flourish both at home and overseas. A key part of this work is to identify export opportunities, many of which are based around the needs of global developing economies.
My noble Friend Lord Maude of Horsham made a statement to the House on Tuesday 19th January on the Government’s strategy to support Trade. This outlines a new, whole-of-government approach to expanding the number of exporters and the value they generate for the British economy. The aim is to make it easier for small business to access this support through better digital platforms, working more closely with partners and making sure services match the needs of business.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is providing to universities to increase collaboration with research institutions in developing economies.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is supporting collaboration with research institutions in developing countries through a number of programmes, including the Newton fund, which now operates in 15 countries. We recently announced the extension of the Newton fund to 2021, with total investment rising to three quarters of a billion pounds between 2014/15 – 2020/21. In addition, at the Spending Review, the Chancellor announced a new Global Challenges Research fund worth £1.5 billion over the next five years (2016/17 - 2020/21).
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to work with local authorities to reduce the level of fuel poverty.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with Local Authorities on fuel poverty initiatives in several ways: