Lee Griffiths is the fruit 'n' veg guru who picked himself up and got a degree.

His company is called Holbeck Foods.

Lee, 27, gained a degree in business management after completing Marks and Spencer's Marks & Start scheme that provides work experience for homeless people.

His not-for-profit business aims to provide affordable, locally-sourced food at discount prices in Holbeck – one of the most deprived areas in the country – as well as delivering fruit and veg by bicycle trailer to the growing residential and business community at Holbeck Urban Village.

Lee has played an instrumental part in setting up Holbeck Community Food Market where he runs a fruit and veg stall.

He is now looking at the possibility of regenerating unused land in the Holbeck area which he hopes to transform into an allotment.

Lee already has backing from the Chamber of Commerce and Yorkshire Forward. He receives a business package including £1,000 cash, stationery, training, work space and expert business support.

Narrowly behind him in the battle to find the most promising small business in the city was an export guru and a soldier-turned high-tech innovator.

Janan Thompson, 25, from Cookridge, was runner-up and won £500.

She designed an export database to help businesses make connections and build during recessions.

Janan teamed up with her best friend Rachel Price, 26, from Moortown, to form Export Connections.

Clemore Bloomfield, who took the third prize of £250, is an ex-soldier with a business called ClemTech Computer Solution.

Clem, 42, from Beeston, was a soldier for nine years. He left the forces to become a security warden for Leeds City Council. He lost his job a year ago. He was prompted to start his own business after he was handed a £200 quote to fix a broken computer.

He found out how to do it himself and now has a business recycling old computers and selling them at reduced rates to social housing tenants and housing associations.

The three winners were on the podium at the climax of a city-wide competition set up by housing management and regeneration group Places for People.

The aim of the Strictly Come Business project (based on hit television programmes Strictly Come Dancing and Dragon's Den) is to promote services available to social housing tenants who might otherwise never get the chance to set up their own business.

The Strictly Come Business project has hunted out budding business brains and bright sparks hidden away among Leeds's council estates and social housing blocks living in East, West and South Leeds, people who might otherwise never have had a chance to turn their ideas into reality.

The Grand Final at Leeds Met was a huge success, with over 160 people attending, including a number of local celebrities and the Leeds Lord Mayor Coun Judith Elliott.

All three winners will also receive a business package sponsored by Tea & Toast which is a design studio specialising in web and print media.

The celebrity judges included Imran Hakim, multi-millionaire owner of i-Teddy, who is the biggest success story from Dragon's Den.

Also on the panel was West Leeds tycoon Carl Hopkins, who grew up in Armley and Bramley and recently appeared on Secret Millionaire, and Lucinda Ledgerwood, one of the finalists from last year's series of The Apprentice.