PENDLE Council and Pendle Vision have teamed up to earn an Enterprising Britain award.

Together they have worked to create the business environment, skills and confidence needed for small businesses to start and grow.

Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, leader of Pendle Council, said: “Through our Gearing up for Growth programme, we have a fantastic track record of helping new businesses to start-up and grow and I’m delighted our hard work has been recognised.

“We’re unique locally in providing specific start-up grant support, and we recently improved our package to include three hours of free business advice.

“This support means that our new businesses have excellent survival rates of about 85 per cent, even after three years of trading."

Pendle Council and Pendle Vision jointly developed the Gearing up for Growth programme, which received a Judges Highly Commended Award.

Dennis Mendoros, chairman of Pendle Vision Board, added: “We have some challenges in Pendle including being the 41st most deprived area on the Index of Deprivation.

“That’s why we need to encourage new businesses to start and grow, nurture existing ones to become more innovative and attract inward investment."

In just two years, Gearing up for Growth has helped 121 businesses start up or expand and has created or safeguarded 473 local jobs.