11:50 - 16 August 2006

If Plymouth succeeds in attracting up to £20million of funding under the LEGI scheme, the city will set itself the target of doubling start-up rates within three years. Andrew Ashley, Managing Director of the Business Advice Centre, said that Plymouth needed to up its level of entrepreneurship if it is to succeed in its goal of upping its performance level.

And he called for business support to be given to all business start-ups with a valid idea and solid business plan - not just those with high initial turnover predictions.

Mr Ashley said: "The huge majority of businesses in Plymouth are in the under £20,000 turnover bracket which shows the need for the LEGI programme.

"Most business start-ups will be below the £60,000 level and for me that's vital information because until businesses start trading and have been trading a while you can't predict which are the ones that are going to grow and be the big businesses. We need to have the type of support available that will help all businesses.

"Businesses like Patronics, Goss and Sola had a five figure turnover in their first year and now look at them, but none of them could tell that at the end of their first year.

"You've got to give everyone the opportunity to follow their ideas through because no one can tell where that idea will take them."

Research carried out to back Plymouth's bid for Local Enterprise Growth Initiative funding shows that the city has one of the lowest start-up rates in the South West, with just 23 businesses started per 10,000 adults. This compares with 33 in Penwith, 26 in Kerrier, 39 in Bristol and an average of 32 in the South West as a whole.

Plymouth will soon submit a bid for funding in the second round of LEGI.

Plymouth City Council, together with its partners, has been working with consultants WM-Enterprise on preparing the bid that will be submitted to a regional panel on September 12.

The city will learn if this has been successful in December.

To help prepare for this bid, a series of consultation events have been held around the city to get feedback on people's attitudes to self-employment, and, in particular, what they feel needs to be in place to encourage more people to start a business.

So far, feedback has included feelings of a lack of confidence, a lack of role models and the high cost of child care.

Suggestions included encouraging retired people to become business mentors, providing business space like hot desks at community centres and introducing business skills into the curriculum of schools.