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tween 30% and 40%. According to data from the Start Up Loans Company there have been 59,021 loans approved and a total of £447,953,626 loaned since the beginning of the programme in September 2012. 14,150 businesses in London have received £108,791,793, while 44,871 businesses have benefited outside the capital, with a total of £339,161,833 being received by start-ups. The Start Up Loans Company “has lent money to people in every part of the country and its impact has been particularly noticeable in areas of deprivation.” In the North East alone, 3,515 loans have been approved and over £26million has been lent. According to--– data from the scheme, since 2012 a total of 41% of entrepreneurs who started a business using Start Up Loans were unemployed prior to applying. A total of 38% of individuals also come from 20% of the most deprived areas of the UK. But Louisa Rogers, Founder of Newcastle based TrendListr, said: “I think the difficulty we have in the North East is that a lot of the funding available is for rural businesses who have little to no support, but when you’re in the city centre it is assumed that you have access to resources which isn’t always the case.” TrendListr is a vintage retailer and are currently working on their own collection. Ms Rogers added: “A lot of the funding is very sector specific and if you’re a business doing something like we are trying to do, where we are going into manufacturing in the UK, that seems to be neglected.” A spokeswoman for the Start Up Loans Company said: “In terms of the support we give to applicants, we pride ourselves on supporting people from all walks of life and we strive to give all applicants from across the UK every opportunity to succeed, both with the loan application and with their businesses as a whole.” Alastair Wilson, Chief Executive of the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), which helps 1,000 people every year develop the skills, strengths and networks to start, scale and strengthen businesses, said: “One of the big problems for entrepreneurs is access to finance, so I think initiatives like the Government’s Start Up Loan scheme are excellent. “But the slight problem is that it works for people who are starting businesses in functional markets and in communities that are winning because they have a good chance of success and good local money circulation. “But how do you widen the net, how do you bring in communities that are really struggling both in terms of people who are facing challenges in their lives and communities with low money circulation. I think if we want to begin to regenerate areas of the UK that have really been left behind, just debt as the only tool is not going to help. Mr Wilson added: “The Government needs to be more creative to help those areas help themselves and move forward and I don’t think that means pumping them full of loans, because that doesn’t help areas move on. I don’t think it stimulates the type of self-employment and entrepreneurship that we need to see. I think we need to think about how we apply loans in a way that incentivises empowered behaviours, so I think the Government need to think of policy and intervention beyond just loans.” Every entrepreneur who receives funding from the Start Up Loans Company is allocated a mentor for up to 12 months to help them with every aspect of setting up their business from writing their business plan to marketing, but Mr Wilson still believes more needs to be done. He added: “If you are really living and working in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the North East of England and you try to set up a business on a street where most of the shops are bordered up, you’re going to struggle. We need to think more creatively about how we build broken markets.” According to data released by the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE), which is the UK’s leading entrepreneurship think tank, there was 15,190 businesses started in 2018 in the North East. The region saw the highest increase in the amount of start-ups, with a rise of 13%. Darlington saw the highest increase in the UK, with a rise of 149%, while Gateshead, Newcastle and North Tyneside all noticed increases of over 10%. Matt Smith, Co-Founder and Director of CFE said: “I think about 5-10 years ago, [people were moving to London to startup businesses] but we have now seen ecosystems really strengthen across the UK, and you can raise money and actually it’s far less of an issue than it once was.” A survey conducted by <strong>Turnover</strong> revealed 54% of people don’t think businesses based in London are at an advantage, and only 29% would relocate to the capital to progress. The survey had 58 respondents who own their own businesses in the UK outside of the capital. Although London is still the leading region in the UK to start your own business, these figures show it is not the only place good ideas can get off the ground. 27 5AM <strong>Magazine</strong>.indd 27 11/03/2019 13:59:25