Working with Business

The way to improve people’s lives is to have good jobs.  This means making sure people have the education and skills to get the jobs, creating the jobs and making the right conditions for business to thrive.

To do all of this means having a great relationship with business.  I’ve  worked in a large businesses and I’ve set up my own business from scratch.

Soon after I was elected Rhona from P&G came to see me. She was really up-front, and told me her colleagues had said, “don’t waste your time. Nothing happens for years if you talk to government.” Well, within months we had our Advanced Circular Economy Project up and running, creating high-tech jobs, developing domestic cleaning products to use less heat and water.

Britain’s five and a half million small business owners should be natural Labour voters. Like us, they want a level playing field. We’ve helped over 1700 small businesses with advice and support or direct investment. We helped a local cycling firm develop an internet savvy customer journey, so they can increase their sales of eco-holidays, and employ more staff. We’ve helped a local joinery firm digitise their production. They’ve employed more joiners and apprentices, and are exporting to Japan. This is investment in the real economy – in firms that pay their taxes and pay their workers properly.

Businesses which recognise that their employees are their greatest asset embrace our Good Work Pledge.  That’s why it is backed by the CBI and the North East Chamber of Commerce.

We’re working with the National Innovation Centre for Data to boost the growth of Digital start-ups, and investing £5 million with the National Innovation Centre for Ageing to boost start-ups in technology to keep us healthy life-long.

Our Innovation Recovery Grants are aimed at small businesses and social enterprises. There’s up to £10,000 available per project. When we think about innovation we tend to think of high-tech products, new materials, computer systems. But really innovation is about doing something in a way it’s not been done before.

We’ve got the North of Tyne Growth Fund. It does what it says on the tin: capital funding to support SMEs looking to expand or establish new operations in Newcastle, North Tyneside, or Northumberland. Grants of up to 30% of your eligible expenditure are available.

I visited Merit Holdings in June. Our £250,000 is helping them to reinvent their approach to construction. They do modular constructions. Clean rooms for biotech. They bought new automation equipment. Robot welding. A new factory. 100 new jobs and a large apprenticeship programme. Hopefully another 150 people employed in the next 12 months. They now manufacture everything in Cramlington.

They’re also down the road from Sweet Dreams – a local confectionary company. Our £92,000 helped them to buy new equipment, hire 10 staff, break into new markets, and make better chocolate. They’ve got plans for vegan and plant-based chocolates. And their Choc Nibbles are delicious!

Our funding is not limited to businesses based in the towns and cities of our region. We have the Rural Business Growth Service to target support to those outside the urban core.

We helped Glendale Engineering in Wooler who specialise in manufacturing livestock equipment. Our £42,000 grant helped them to buy a new plant and hire 11 new staff. They can now take on larger scale projects and start delivery faster than before.

I want to stay plugged into everything affecting the business community.  I talk directly to business owners and I have my quarterly Business Ambassador to the Mayor meetings.  This is with the CBI, North East Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses, TechUK and MadeUK.  They tell me what their members and research is telling them so we can work together to do the best for our businesses.

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