Startup Britain provides new UK businesses with £1500 support package

Startup Britain – a new initiative by a group of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs – has launched this morning, assisting Britain’s small businesses in what is a response by the private sector to the Government’s call for an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery.

The Startup Britain platform will see established businesses provide millions of pounds worth of support to Britain’s entrepreneurs and small businesses, with Barclays, Microsoft and Virgin Media backing the venture.

Canadian mobile manufacturer RIM has pledged free guides to BlackBerry owners and AXA has offered 10% off of new insurance quotes. Google will provide each new business with a free amount of Adwords advertising, with HP providing 10% off any online purchases and mobile operator O2 will provide a free month’s line rental.

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, speaking of StartUp Britain, said:

“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. 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.”

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Every new company in Britain will be entitled to claim a support package worth £1500, supported by British Finance Taskforce and the British Bankers’ Association. To further assist businesses, the Government has also announced new measures, providing 250,000 young people with loans of ten pounds to get a taste of what it is like to run their own business.

Higher education institutions have been asked to create new “Enterprise Societies”, helping to focus business knowledge and generate ideas. New businesses can also pitch ideas on how Government businesses could be streamlined and run more cost effectively with the best suggestions providing businesses with a chance to receive mentoring from some of the country’s top entrepreneurs.