Honoured for helping businesses to grow and thrive, North Tyneside Council is celebrating after being recognised at a European awards ceremony.

The Made in North Tyneside project, run by the council’s Business Factory, triumphed at the Enterprising Britain Awards in September for the second year running and was subsequently chosen to represent the UK at the recent European Enterprise Promotion Awards in Tallinn, Estonia.

During both the National and European Awards, the judges were impressed by the project’s various initiatives to help start-up businesses. These include providing mentoring, bespoke advice and workshops, as well as helping to develop innovative approaches, such as a business start app, making it quicker and easier for entrepreneurs to access business support and information.

In addition to working with start-ups, the project also assists small and medium-sized enterprises through its ‘Aspire’ programme. ‘Aspire’ helps to link scale-up companies with successful business leaders from local firms in order to share best practice and help remove any barriers to growth.

Since the launch of the project in 2012, North Tyneside has seen an increase of 56 per cent in self-employment and a higher than average business survival rate.

Delighted with the success, North Tyneside Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn said: “I am extremely proud to see our business team not only winning an Enterprising Britain Award for the second year running, but I am also thrilled that as a result of this, the team was then commended for its hard work and dedication at the prestigious European Enterprise Promotion Awards.

“Here in North Tyneside, we are committed to helping businesses to grow and thrive. Our team has done a fantastic job in supporting thousands of local businesses and entrepreneurs to achieve their ambitions and contribute to the vibrancy of our local economy. They are a credit to themselves and to the council.”

The European Enterprise Promotion Awards are part of an initiative by the EU Commission to increase entrepreneurial activity across Europe. It rewards those who promote entrepreneurship and small business at a national, regional and local level. Since 2006, over 2,800 projects have entered the awards and together they have supported the creation of thousands of new companies across Europe.

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