PM backs ‘StartUp Britain’ scheme

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A new private sector initiative launched today to help start up companies in the UK has won the backing of the Prime Minister.

David Cameron pledged his support to the ‘StartUp Britain’ campaign, which will see a number of entrepreneurs give advice and resources to people looking to launch a new business and help those already working on one.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, mentioned the new scheme in his budget speech last week when he called for an “enterprise-led recovery,” but details have only emerged today.

“We believe that many of the important functions and services necessary to foster and champion new enterprise can be open-sourced, instead of provided by Government directly,” read a statement from the organisation.

“We aim to do this by creating a living marketplace online for the wide range of enterprise support that is already available.”

Cameron released an emotive statement, calling on those with big ideas to “make it happen.”

“We won’t build the future we want to see in this country if we go back to the bad old days of big Government spending, big borrowing and big debt,” he said. “The recovery we need is a private sector-led recovery, a recovery with ‘Made in Britain’ stamped all over it.”

“We put out a call to business to rise up and help us drive the recovery and StartUp Britain is part of the answer to that call. That’s what’s really exciting about this. The people best placed to help business are the people who do business.”

A number of technology companies have backed the scheme, including BlackBerry, Microsoft, Intel and Virgin Media.

Along with pledging the likes of advertising, marketing, office space, broadband connections and mentoring, the amount of money put into the scheme worked out at more than £1,500 for each of the 270,000 businesses that start in the UK each year.

StartUp young

Alongside the announcement, the Government also launched a number of new projects to encourage business minds from a young age.

The first measure was to work with Peter Jones from The Dragon’s Den to increase the number of participants in his Tenner Tycoon scheme – giving school children £10 to try out their business skills with.

Secondly, it said it wanted to support every school in England to run its own business as part of the Enterprise Champions Programme, along with ‘enterprise societies’ within every university.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, said: “We want to transform the ambition and aspiration of young people through real business experience.”

“Through Tenner Tycoon, the Enterprise Champions Programme and enterprise societies, we will be giving young people insight into enterprise at an early age, showing them how rewarding it can be to transform your own ideas into a real business.”

Finally, the Government announced plans to launch an online tool to enable businesses to pitch ideas to the Government, with the best ideas receiving mentoring.

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