The scheme, the brainchild of Lord Young and Chaired by James Caan, has helped 25,000 people start their own business, and resulted in an estimated 32,000 new jobs with nearly half of them full-time. Almost half the recipients were previously unemployed.
The Prime Minister will say today that more jobs are being created in Britain than ‘the rest of Europe put together’.
‘The Conservatives are the party of small businesses,’ he will add. ‘We’re the party of the roofers and the retailers; the builders and the businesswomen.
The Prime Minister will say today that more jobs are being created in Britain than ‘the rest of Europe put together’
‘We’re the ones who back people who strike out on their own, take the risks and create wealth and jobs in our country. These are people we admire and want to help.
‘Other parties preach about this sort of stuff but we’re the ones who really deliver. That’s why we began Start-Up Loans – to help people with a smart idea make their first sale.
‘And in the next Parliament, we’re going to treble it.’
Around £100m has been lent so far, the average loan is £5,286, and 63 per cent of recipients are male, with entrepreneurs aged 18-30 receiving just over half of the money.
In the speech Cameron will commit to tripling the number of Start-Up loans so 75,000 are handed out by the end of the next Parliament. At least £300million of loan capital will be made available.
Cameron will also be promising to back small businesses by keeping taxes low and cutting red tape; invest in infrastructure; lower the benefit cap to reward work; and create three million more apprenticeships.
He will say: ‘We have had a tough few years as a country but we are coming out the other side. We are the jobs factory of Europe; we’re creating more jobs here than the rest of Europe put together.
‘Full employment may be an economic term, but this is what it means in human terms: it means more of our fellow men and women with the security of a regular wage; it means you, your family and your children having a job and getting on in life.
