East London Small Business Centre

To celebrate 30 years of helping people in deprived communities in east London to set up and develop their businesses, ELSBC hosted an evening reception at the historic Christ Church, Spitalfields, with an evening programme which traced the Centre’s three decades.

The keynote speech was given by the Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and local MP for East Ham. Tim Heath, ELSBC’s Chief Executive and Pauline Barnett, deputy Chief Executive hosted a night of entrepreneurial extravaganza, including a miniature fashion show from the ethically creative Junky Styling.

The Centre has helped  more than 10,000 new and existing businesses in east London and provided financial support in access of £10 million and has a strong, long established relationship with the communities it serves.

The Minister emphasised the ELSBC’s track record of helping small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) through two previous recessions and emphasised the Government’s commitment to help small businesses during the present economic downturn.

He said: “By supporting small businesses in east London, the East London Small Business Centre is playing an important role in making sure the residents take full advantage of new opportunities arising from the 2012 Olympics.”

ELSBC covers five east London boroughs which have a total of 42,000 unemployed residents and suffer from the highest levels of social deprivation in the UK. It is estimated that 1 in 12 people will be unemployed in the UK by 2010, and this downturn will lead to more people turning to self employment.