Member Article

Manchester, Warrington and Stockport named entrepreneurial hotspots as PM announces measures for business

More than 24,000 new businesses were started in Manchester, Warrington and Stockport last year, according to the latest figures, making them the region’s leading entrepreneurial hotspots.

The news comes as the Prime Minister announced a package of measures aimed at helping small businesses. In a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses, David Cameron said that this is the first government in modern history to reduce overall domestic regulation for business while in office.

He told the conference that the government has exceeded its target to identify 3,000 regulations to be amended or scrapped. 800 regulations have already been abolished or simplified – with tens of thousands of pages of red tape still to face the chop.

Figures released by StartUp Britain show British entrepreneurs created a record number of new businesses in 2013. A total of 526,446 businesses were registered with Companies House in 2013, beating the 484,224 recorded in 2012, and 440,600 in 2011.

Manchester had the third highest number of business start-ups in the country, after Greater London and Birmingham, with 11,765. Warrington was in ninth position on the list with 6,776 new businesses and Stockport was 23rd with 5,566.

Jayne Hynes, 37, from Manchester, has already become a successful entrepreneur despite only starting her business less than a year ago. She set up frozen baby food company Kiddyum in March 2013 and has recently signed a deal with Sainsbury’s which will mean her product will go into stores later this year.

During his speech, David Cameron said: “Supporting business is a crucial part of our long term economic plan, creating jobs and security for all. That is why, among so many other things, I have insisted on slashing needless regulation. We will be the first government in modern history to have reduced – rather than increased – domestic business regulation during our time in office.

“This will make it easier for you to grow, to create jobs and to help give this country the long-term security we are working towards. More than 1.3 million new jobs have been created since I came to office – many of them by small businesses. And I know many of you want to grow further – or may be thinking of employing your first person – but have been put off or held back by red tape.

“So we have trawled through thousands of pieces of regulation – from the serious to the ridiculous, and we will be scrapping or amending over 3,000 regulations – saving business well over £850 million every single year. That’s half a million pounds which will be saved for businesses every single day of the year.

“I know that while we struggle to bring down domestic regulation, you fear an ever-greater pile of EU-inspired bureaucracy. That’s why I’ve led the fight in Europe to bring an end to this, and continue to press the Commission to implement the 30 recommendations from my Business Taskforce.”

More information on the announcements by the Prime Minister is available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/supporting-business-david-cameron-announces-new-plans.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .