Got a workable business plan? Start Up Loan scheme offers Manchester's budding entrepreneurs £2.5K each

By Sophia Rahman

Manchester’s budding young entrepreneurs will be able to gain their share of the government’s £82.5million Startup Loan scheme, being launched today.

The loans will offer an average of £2,500 for each person between the ages of 18 and 24 who have a workable business plan, with an interest rate of RPI plus 3%.

The scheme is coinciding with Lord Young’s report which found that the UK would have 900,000 more businesses if we had a similar culture of enterprise as the US.

David Cameron said: “I want this to be the year where people can think: yes, I can do it, that we can get as many viable businesses as possible off the ground, that people can have a go.”

Economic Solutions Group, the Chamber of Commerce’s Manchester-based delivery arm will be providing start up support and training, help with developing business plans, make the loans and manage repayments.

Dragon’s Den star and entrepreneur James Caan will chair the new body which will be overseeing the scheme.

Mr Caan said: “The StartUp Loans initiative provides guidance, access to expertise and finance. These are the three vital ingredients for starting your own business. Armed with all of these, young people are already on the way to shaping their own future.”

Lord Young, who was a trade and industry secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s Government said the loans would transform the enterprise potential of a new generation, which is critical to economic growth.

Lord Young was appointed as Cameron’s enterprise tsar in late 2010, but had resigned within a month after claiming that British people had “never had it so good”, he quietly returned to his role last October in an unpaid capacity.

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