asked Her Majesty's Government:

What assessment has been made of the relative access to support programmes for businesses located in (a) rural, (b) urban and (c) inner-city areas. [HL3336]

Business Link, a free service funded by the Government available online and locally throughout England, provides access to the information, advice and support needed to start, maintain and grow a business. Regional development agencies, responsible for the contract management of the service, continually monitor the performance of the Business Link service which includes the assessment of Business Link usage by rural/urban customers. Additionally, individual regional development agencies offer access to tailored business support relevant to their own area.

In March 2004, Supporting Rural Enterprises in England by the Rural Affairs Forum for England Business and Rural Enterprise Sub-Group was published by Defra at www.defra.gov.uk/rural/pdfs/rafe/meeting7/7_9supporting_rural_enterprise.pdf. This assessed access to business support for rural firms and made policy proposals in this area.

The Economic Impact Study of Business Link Local Service was published by BERR in 2007 at www.berr.gov.uk/about/economics-statistics/economics-directorate/page21981.html. Although this did not set out to assess access as such, it did include a special perspective.

The enterprise strategy, published alongside the Budget in March 2008, announced that a new Spatial Economics Research Centre would be established to investigate what drives differences in economic growth at various spatial levels.