Drive to boost start-ups rolls into Scotland

A CAMPAIGN to promote entrepreneurship arrives in Scotland this week on the way to helping the number of UK businesses started in 2015 reach a record 600,000.

StartUp Britain was set up in 2011 and this summer’s tour, using an iconic Routemaster bus wrapped with campaign branding, will take in Edinburgh tomorrow, followed on subsequent days by Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness.

At the recent London launch, surrounded by business people including Carol Smillie and Entrepreneurial Spark boss Jim Duffy, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the target set for the government-­backed Start Up Loans Company three years ago of awarding 30,000 loans to entrepreneurs by 2015 has been achieved.

The bus will be manned by advisors from sponsors Sage, RBS/NatWest and Start Up Loans, as well as local support groups. StartUp Britain director Matt Smith said: “We want to give people the confidence and inspiration to turn their business ideas into reality”.