Jobs creation group proving a big success

6:03am Saturday 31st March 2007

A BUSINESS start-up organisation, which last year launched a five-year scheme to create 10,000 jobs and set up 7,500 companies in the North-East, has released its latest figures.

InBiz, which has its head office in Stockton, Teesside, yesterday said that it helped set up 269 businesses across the region last year.

Of that figure, 202 ventures were set up by men, and one-sixth were established by entrepreneurs over the age of 50.

InBiz is a Government-funded organisation that has specialised in business start-up, training and support for the past 16 years. It opened its first office on Teesside in 1991 and the service spread across the region two years later.

The body now has offices in Bishop Auckland, Consett, Darlington, Durham, Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, North Shields, Redcar and Sunderland. To date, it has helped set up more than 3,300 small businesses.

In January last year, InBiz unveiled Project 10k - a multi-agency scheme that aims to put 10,000 unemployed people into work by helping them set up their own businesses by December 2010.

Other partners involved in the project include local authorities, Business Link, The Prince's Trust, One NorthEast and JobCentre Plus.

At its launch, it received the backing of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said: "I wish this excellent initiative every success. It is wonderful to see organisations in the region working together to support the enterprise agenda."

Will Pratt, managing director of InBiz, said: "We have worked hard to establish our service in the North-East, and I think the area is reaping the benefits of this now. There are lots of people in the region with great business ideas, for whom self-employment could be hugely beneficial."

Figures from the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) have shown that over the past 12 years, the region has consistently had the fewest business start-ups in Britain.

Mr Pratt said: "If our support can continue to help those people to make their ideas into a reality, then it is only a matter of time until the DTI figures start showing that there is far from a shortage of entrepreneurs in the North-East."