NEWCASTLE JOURNAL LET'S GROW CAMPAIGN

That this House joins business groups and unions in warmly congratulating the Newcastle Journal on the launch of its major new campaign, Let's Grow, to help ambitious small and medium-sized companies in the North West to expand by encouraging such enterprises to form a consortium to take part in the second round of the Government's Regional Growth Fund, which has a minimum threshold of 1 million for applications; notes that the campaign is open to all companies with their registered head office in the North East with fewer than 250 staff, an annual turnover of no more than 25 million and for a particular project, which will create sustainable jobs in the region, which would not go ahead without support from the fund; and believes that this practical action by the main business newspaper does much to underline the willingness of the North East to grow its economy and make a contribution to the UK as a whole.