Celebrating Bradford’s enterprising and innovative business culture is a wonderful way to highlight the essential role of entrepreneurship and commerce in Britain today.

Bradford has already been named a self-employment hotspot, so these awards are a welcome recognition of that business ambition.

With the economy still facing significant problems and the state no longer able to spend its way to recovery, we are more reliant than ever on enterprise and business to provide real growth and jobs for our economy.

Returning the UK economy to sustainable growth is the overriding priority of this Coalition Government.

But it needs to be a different sort of economic growth. One less based upon unsustainable consumption, insufficient investment and deficits. More balanced, more sustainable, more fairly spread.

Our immediate focus had to be on reducing the fiscal deficit, but we now need a relentless drive for growth across all sectors of the economy. While it is good to see Bradford businesses doing their bit, I’d like to mention a few things the Government is doing on their behalf.

We have made a four-part commitment to the private sector to drive policy in Whitehall and beyond that reflects our new attitude. First, providing the stability business needs to plan and invest. As economies across Europe have faltered, rapid action by the Coalition has put the UK economy on a sound footing.

Second, we’re making markets more dynamic by removing barriers to growth wherever we can. We are looking to develop a planning regime that supports growth and sustainable development. We are cracking down on red tape and we are making international trade a priority.

Third, we are focusing the Government’s activities on providing the conditions for private sector growth and investment. That means focused public sector spending, a stable and competitive tax regime, and investing in infrastructure.

And finally, we are ensuring that strong growth is fairly shared, making the very best use of the potential of people, and is sustainable in the long term. To this end, the Government is reforming every stage of the education and skills systems to ensure that they deliver the skills that individuals and employers need.

There are currently around ten million working-age people who are not working, with more than five million of these receiving out-of-work benefits. This is simply not sustainable, and it will fall to the UK’s business community to help get some of these people back to work.

That’s why I am pleased to see the Telegraph & Argus and its partners playing their role in highlighting business success and excellence.