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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how the Government-backed British business bank will help support small businesses in North Cornwall constituency.

We are committed to ensuring all small businesses have access to the support they need to succeed to start, grow, and scale their businesses.

The Government-backed British Business Bank is there to make finance markets work better for small businesses at all stages of their development. The Bank’s programmes are currently supporting over £6.6bn of finance to over 89,000 smaller businesses (as at end-March 2019). The British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. Since 2012, the programme has delivered almost 65,000 loans, worth nearly £511m to small businesses (as at end-June 2019).

In North Cornwall specifically, since 2014 the Bank has supported over £5.75m of finance to over 180 smaller businesses (as of July 2019). 99 Start-Up Loans have been issued in North Cornwall, totalling £912,033. The Bank’s programmes will continue to support smaller businesses in North Cornwall.

In June 2018, the British Business Bank launched the £40m Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF) to provide debt and equity finance in this area. The fund has deployed £1.9m into 10 small businesses as at the end of May 2019.

The Bank’s online Finance Hub helps small business owners identify potential sources of finance via the finance finder web tool. The Business Bank has also established a UK Network, with team members based within each of the English regions and the three Devolved Nations, including a representative for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. The UK Network works with small business finance intermediaries to enhance business finance ecosystems across the UK, so smaller businesses, wherever they are, can grow and prosper.