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Secretary of State drops in to celebrate

The Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform visited Business Link North East (BLNE) last week in the run-up to the organisation’s first birthday.

John Hutton MP visited the regional business support service at its headquarters in Seaham, County Durham. His visit came just weeks ahead of BLNE’s first anniversary in April, marking its initial full year managing one single regional Business Link service for the North East of England.

By the end of its first year, BLNE estimates that it will have worked with more than 10,000 businesses, supported 4,000 business start-ups and worked with more than 4,000 customers to develop skills.

Speaking ahead of his visit, Mr Hutton said: “Business Link North East has been effective in providing credible, efficient and targeted support to businesses in the region, with a measurable and effective impact for businesses in the North East.“The new enterprise strategy, published this week, will see Business Link playing an increasingly important role in delivering support to business.”

Alastair MacColl, Chief Executive of BLNE, said: “It has been an enormously positive and progressive year for Business Link North East and the support we offer the region’s business community. “We have largely put in place the infrastructure, systems and processes to provide a fundamentally improved business support service for our region. We have invested our resources where they can really make a difference. We are working to make the North East the best place in the country to start and grow a business.”

For further information about Business Link visit www.businesslinknortheast.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .