Small businesses want to take on young people – but the barriers remain, entrepreneurs said as they brought views from the coal face to Westminster lawmakers.

The Big Q project, spearheaded by Norfolk business champions Buy Local Norfolk and the Inspired Youth initiative, returned to the capital for a second year with the results of its latest survey, The Big Q.

The views of 133 businesses which took part showed that there was still a discrepancy between just under 70pc of firms which want to take on a young person and less than 40pc who have.

A roundtable discussion was attended by the leaders of businesses including Face to Face Finance, Flowers by Nicole and Perfect Pamper.

Young people who had been taken on by businesses were also there.

Martin Lake, Chairman of Buy Local Norfolk said the trends from the survey showed that there was still a 'huge desire' for businesses in Norfolk to take on a young person and grow, but he said there had not been any change in the barriers that had prevented it from happening.

'Given it is a new term of parliament we think this is a great time to come down and present the results.'

Robert Whitwood, founder of Inspired Youth, said there was a frustration by young people around how they were being prepared for the world of work.

He said they needed to encourage growth and link ups of young people it would help the Norfolk economy.

Norwich MP Chloe Smith, who sponsored the event, took part in the discussion. Other MPs who were invited did not attend the event, which started 45 minutes late because of transport delays.

But Mr Lake said that the project was being 'taken seriously' by MPs and they had also been supported by North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, the New Anglia local enterprise partnership and Broadland District Council, which had all contributed questions to the survey.

But he added: 'There is a shared frustration that we do want to expand as businesses and that is not always being recognised or properly facilitated.'

The small business owners, who were among the 22 people who attended the event, also raised concerns about government policies including the living wage and the introduction of workplace pensions.

The survey, which had a spread of businesses from across Norfolk, found that marginally fewer businesses said they were gaining confidence to grow their businesses or knew what support was available to them.

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