Funding Archives - Page 14 of 18 - North East Local Enterprise Partnership

Jeremy Middleton is a North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board Member and serves as Chair of the North East LEP’s Investment Panel. Here, Jeremy talks about the North East Investment Fund and how it has the potential to give a real boost to the region’s economy.

What is the North East Investment Fund?

Quite simply, the North East Investment Fund is a capital loan fund which is available to support projects in the North East which will encourage local economic growth and create new jobs in the region. The fund is worth £55m in total and is made up of £30m from the Regional Growth Fund and £25m from the Growing Places Fund.

Loans can vary in duration from two to 20 years and it’s an evergreen fund, so once funded projects are completed and their loans are repaid, the money is re-invested into the fund and made available to support new schemes. We made this strategic decision to reject the culture of grants and dependency, instead choosing to award loans which can be recycled.

Can you tell us what the fund has achieved so far?

The North East Investment Fund has already supported some fantastic ventures and is well on the way to exceeding its goal of creating at least 2,300 new jobs across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham.

One of the first developments to be allocated money was the Stephenson Quarter development in Newcastle, swiftly followed by a number of projects in Washington, central Sunderland, Chester-le-Street and on the banks of the Tyne in North Tyneside that are all now going ahead thanks to investment from the fund.

The University of Durham’s ambitious plans to develop an Centre for Innovation and Enterprise has also been supported by the Investment Fund and this is another great example of a development which itself with create more opportunities for growth. We’ve also supported the Blyth Workspace development in Northumberland and the West Chirton business park, amongst others.

The flexibility of the fund means it’s been able to support a wide range of projects in both the public and private sector.

Who can apply?

Applications to the North East Investment Fund are evaluated against a number of key criteria. Firstly, strategic economic fit – will the project help to strengthen the local economy or will it benefit transport, connectivity or infrastructure? We also consider deliverability: will projects be completed on time and are the goals achievable?

Applicants are asked to outline how and when they will repay the loan and we also look at how bids will help to create or safeguard jobs, private sector investment or brownfield land development here in the North East.

Ultimately, the fund is there to help support the North East LEP’s goal of creating new and better jobs for the region and achieving the economic potential of the region.

How is the funding allocated?

The fund is managed by the North East LEP, which was behind the successful bids to the third round of the Regional Growth Fund.

The North East LEP’s Investment Panel is a group which includes members of the North East LEP Board and people from the business community, and the group meets regularly to review new applications to the fund.

What’s next for the North East Investment Fund?

We’re inviting more organisations to apply, via the North East LEP, for loans from the North East Investment Fund. The money is available to help kick start projects that lack the initial finance to get off the ground but that have great potential to benefit the North East economy and that are able to realistically repay the initial investment, making it available to support yet more schemes in the future.

I strongly encourage people to take a look at the opportunities which are available through the North East Investment Fund and to consider how it can be used to make real improvements to the North East economy.

Find out more about the North East Investment Fund

A graphic designer whose clients include; the NHS, Grosvenor Casinos and Sunderland AFC has expanded his business by taking office space at The Hub Washington.

After being made redundant in 2013 from Newcastle United, Gavin Grieves established Grieves Design and hasn’t looked back since. He contacted the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) for business support advice.

Well into his third year and business is thriving so much so that Gavin has taken office space at the BIC’s sister site in Washington. Gavin explains:

“Obviously I was devastated at being made redundant but the job centre referred me to the BIC and I was assigned to one of their business advisers. I then realised that I could make a go of it on my own.

“After running the business from home, I decided the time was right to take office space to minimise the distractions that working from home brings, and I am delighted to say it has been much more productive than working from the kitchen table!”

Gavin lives within walking distance of The Hub, which is located on Crowther Road and when he saw that the BIC were managing the office space, he decided to view what the building had to offer.

“The facilities are cracking here at The Hub. It is great to have access to meeting rooms for when I need to bring clients to the building, not to mention the ample free parking. It is also reassuring to know that help and support is there should I need it.

“After being made redundant it was hard to imagine I’d find something else but being my own boss brings so much satisfaction and a greater financial reward.”

“My main aim is to maintain my current success, and to keep delivering to my returning customers, whilst welcoming more new ones. The BIC have been amazing, they have helped me every step of the way throughout the start-up process.

“I would advise anyone wishing to start a business to contact the BIC. I can’t believe when I first started I said I’d never have an office, yet here I am in my own office working for myself!”

Centre manager of The HUB, Jillian Coleman added:

“It is great to welcome Gavin to our business community. The Hub only opened four months ago and we are already filling up fast. The response has been excellent but I think it is down to the quality and range of office accommodation that is available, our location and the facilities on site.

“The Hub is ideal for new business start-ups like Grieves Design and large established companies such as call centres who may have fifteen plus staff. With business support services available from the BIC, its little wonder why companies are choosing to locate their business at The Hub.”

The Hub provides flexible managed office space and business support services for businesses of all sizes across the North East. To view the office space available, please call the team on 0191 338 5166 or visit www.thehubwashington.co.uk

A number of transport schemes in receipt of funding from the Local Growth Fund have recently been approved or work has commenced. These include:

Central Metro Station
In July 2015, approval was granted for the release of £2.51m of funding from the Local Growth Fund for the Central Metro Station improvement scheme. The scheme involves the high quality refurbishment of Central Metro Station to provide a top class passenger experience at a key transport hub and construction began in September.

Coast Road
Approval for the release of £6.523m of funding from the Local Growth Fund for the Coast Road scheme was granted in July 2015. The scheme is planned to deliver a wide range of multi-modal benefits, including journey time and reliability improvements for bus and car users, as well as accessibility and safety enhancements for pedestrians and cyclists. Advanced utilities works are due to start late this month/ early next month with implementation of the scheme scheduled for January 2016.

TfN
The North East region continues to play an active role in the Transport for the North (TfN) partnership, bringing together transport authorities from across the North to promote investment in key inter-city and inter-regional connections across the north of England. The NELEP is represented on the TfN Board.

TfN has appointed a new Chief Executive, the former Chief Executive/Director General of Merseytravel David Brown. The process to appoint an independent Chair before the end of 2015 is also underway, with plans in place to develop TfN into a statutory body by 2017. The government have announced that they will propose amendments to the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill to put this into effect.

Trans Atlantic Flight
United Airlines have announced that their seasonal nonstop service between Newcastle and its New York hub, Newark Liberty International Airport, will return in summer 2016. The flights will operate six times weekly during the period May 26, 2016 to September 6, 2016.

The Comprehensive Spending Review 2015 is the first Spending Review under current Government and sets out spending plans for the next five years of parliament.

This report summarises the key points of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2015.

Click here to download a PDF report on the key points from the Comprehensive Spending Review 2015

Urban and rural areas around the region to be included in new EZ

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) today unveiled the ten sites around the region that will be included in the new Enterprise Zone (EZ) confirmed for the North East this week.

The LEP’s successful bid for a second EZ to bring more and better jobs to the region was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in Wednesday’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review.

The new EZ, with sites stretching from Northumberland to County Durham, will focus on growing businesses, particularly working in the LEP’s four smart specialisation areas of health and life sciences, creative and digital, subsea, and low carbon industries.

The second EZ will cover 175 hectares and aims to deliver a further 14,000 jobs and 600,000sq m of employment opportunities over the 25-year lifetime of the project.

The ten sites, covering both urban and rural parts of the region, are located at:

• Hawthorn Business Park, County Durham
• Follingsby South, Gateshead
• North Bank of the Tyne, Newcastle
• Newcastle International Airport Business Park, Newcastle
• The A1, Morpeth, Northumberland
• Ashwood Business Park, Northumberland
• Ramparts Business Park, Northumberland
• Holborn Riverside, South Tyneside
• International Advanced Manufacturing Park, Sunderland and South Tyneside
• Port of Sunderland, Sunderland

The North East LEP worked with the seven local authorities and the North East Combined Authority on the successful proposal for a second EZ. The new sites are designed to complement existing sites and drive growth through making, trading and innovating.

Helen Golightly, North East LEP Chief Operating Officer, said: “We will now be working with the Government to refine the details of the new Enterprise Zone ahead of it being put into statute to go live in April 2017.

“The new Enterprise Zone will give us yet another offer to attract businesses to locate and expand in the region, and help us to deliver our strategic economic plan to deliver more and better jobs for the North East.”

Businesses located within EZs benefit from a number of key advantages designed to drive their growth. These include business rate discounts for up to five years or tax savings via enhanced capital allowances for businesses investing in plant and machinery.

The LEP’s first EZ has been offering benefits to business in the offshore, renewables and automotive sectors since 2012. Since its creation, the EZ has attracted over £100 million of new private sector investment and resulted in over 1,200 new jobs and 25 new businesses.

North East LEP Chairman, Paul Woolston, said: “I’m delighted about our successful bid for a second Enterprise Zone for the region, and we’re thrilled to reveal the locations of the ten sites that will be included.

“EZs exist to drive growth in the smart specialisation areas identified by the LEP. They will play a key role in supporting the creation of more high-quality jobs and attracting further private sector investment into the North East.”

A crucial £120m business support fund will be invested exclusively into scores of North East companies after the North East LEP voted to keep it under local control.

The Treasury has backed the LEP board’s decision to keep the new JEREMIE 2 fund in the North East and not become part of the new Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund unveiled in yesterday’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

The LEP was asked by the Government to decide on JEREMIE 2’s future.

The original JEREMIE programme has been a spectacular success.

Known more commonly by business as the Finance for Business North East Fund, it has invested £140m in equity and loans from its North East base over the past five years into more than 800 local small and medium-sized firms.

The LEP understands the importance of keeping the JEREMIE scheme live. It has agreed an extra £4.5m from its North East Investment Fund to be pumped into the original JEREMIE fund to keep it running as normal until the new £120m JEREMIE 2 opens for business in the North East late next year.

Helen Golightly, North East LEP Chief Operating Officer, said: “We believe the decision we have taken to keep the JEREMIE fund administered from a North East base exclusively for investment in North East businesses, is the best option for the region.

“We have a tried, tested and highly successful funding eco-system in place which has delivered outstanding results for many North East companies, and we want to preserve and build on those foundations.”

The new JEREMIE 2 fund is likely to be branded as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, but will be a separate North East pot of cash.

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund has £400m which will be invested in firms across the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside and Tees Valley.

The British Business Bank will run it from Sheffield.

Paul Woolston, North East LEP Chair, said: “The LEP has lobbied hard to ensure JEREMIE 2 remains North East based, North East run and fully invested into North East companies.

“JEREMIE is a huge success story for our region. It made no sense to take such an enormous leap in the dark to let its successor JEREMIE 2 leave the region when we have the proven track record of exceptional delivery and return on our investment right here.

“Our decision is excellent news for the North East economy. The new fund will be delivered in the North East as its predecessor was, through proven delivery channels with the repaid loan funding all being pumped back into even more growing local businesses.”

The North East LEP has committed a substantial proportion of its European structural funds to support the development of JEREMIE 2 along with match funding from the European Investment Bank.

It is hoped in time that the JEREMIE fund programme will become an ‘evergreen fund’, self-sustaining through the reinvestment of paid loans into even more new firms.

North East Finance is the holding fund manager for the Finance for Business North East fund, operating from offices in Grey Street, Newcastle.

The fund has helped create more than 2,600 new jobs, safeguard a further 3,000 and secure £180m in private sector investment.

Multi-site EZ to boost manufacturing, export and innovation confirmed by Chancellor

The business-led North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has secured a new Enterprise Zone (EZ) for the region to fuel the creation of more and better jobs.

Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Spending Review that the North East LEP’s bid for a second EZ has been successful and that the multi-site Enterprise Zone is being supported by Government.

This second EZ has been developed to complement and grow the region’s four key areas of strength, which are referred to as smart specialisation areas – Health and Life Science, Creative Digital, Automotive and Subsea and Offshore Renewables.

The new EZ will comprise ten sites across Northumberland, Durham, Sunderland, Gateshead, South Tyneside and Newcastle.

Helen Golightly, North East LEP Chief Operating Officer, said: “Enterprise Zones provide us with a strong offer to business to locate and develop in the North East.

“We are committed to supporting business to grow and are delighted to be given the opportunity to build on the success of our first Enterprise Zone. The second EZ will help us deliver the strategic economic plan and deliver more and better jobs for the region.”

North East LEP Chairman, Paul Woolston, said: “I’m delighted about our successful bid for a second Enterprise Zone for the region.

The Rural Growth Network (RGN) pilot project began in 2012 with £3.2m of funding for the North East from Defra. Over the last three years it has been testing ways of overcoming barriers to economic growth in the North East’s rural areas.

The Programme has been highly successful. It has helped around 200 new businesses to establish themselves within the rural areas, assisted more than 1,000 businesses with either financial support or business advice and created more than 100 new enterprise spaces at 13 business hub sites across the rural North East.

Following on from this success, the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has approved a further £6m over the next four years from the Growth Deal Local Growth Fund to enable the RGN to continue to support businesses.

Two new capital funds are on offer – the Rural Business Growth Fund and the Strategic Economic Infrastructure Fund.

The Rural Business Growth Fund (RBGF) opened on 3rd November and will accept expressions of interest until the 22nd December. Capital investment is available to support rural businesses that have clear plans to expand productivity or diversify into new markets or products. The fund is open to businesses in sectors from food, drink and manufacturing to the energy and environmental industries and can support improvements or expansion of premises and the purchase of capital plant or equipment.

The Strategic Economic Infrastructure Fund (SEIF) will support the creation of enterprise units for multiple business users, site preparation works to unlock economic development sites or significant tourism projects of a strategic nature. Funding has already been committed to six new projects across the area this year and the fund is currently open until the 23rd November to new applications for funding from April 2016 onwards.

Both schemes are available to support up to 40% of the cost of capital developments which can lead to the creation of more and better jobs in the region’s rural economy.

North East LEP board member, Gillian Hall said: “We are committed to ensuring that small to medium sized businesses located outside of our towns and cities have equal access to the finance they need to grow and thrive.

“Rural businesses have a huge part to play in supporting the regional economy and in creating more and better jobs for all. I strongly encourage entrepreneurs and business owners to take advantage of the opportunities that these funds provide.”

One project recently supported by the Strategic Economic Infrastructure Fund is The Sill in Northumberland which received a £1m investment into the new national landscape discovery centre which will create at least 120 jobs and contribute almost £5m in visitor spending to the North East economy each year.

You can find out more about both grant schemes by contacting the RGN Delivery Team who are based at Arch – The Northumberland Development Company.

Julie Bullen – [email protected] / 01670 528476 / 07795882069
Louise Liddle – [email protected] / 01670 528458 / 07807886543

For more details about the call for the Rural Business Growth Fund (RBGF), visit http://www.archnorthumberland.co.uk/north-east-rural-growth-network/rural-growth-network-news-events/

A project call for Expression of Interest to the Rural Business Growth Fund (RBGF) is now open for applications.

This is one of two new Rural Growth Network (RGN) funding schemes funded by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

This capital fund is designed to boost enterprise and business growth through expansion of productivity or diversifying into new markets or products across much of rural Northumberland, County Durham and Gateshead.

Grant support will be directed at micro, small and medium sized businesses with growth plans. Priority will be for businesses operating in target sectors within the North East Rural Growth Network (NE RGN) area.

Grants will be available at 40% of eligible costs from a minimum of £10,000 to £60,000, subject to state aid.

Activities which can be supported include:

• Improvements/upgrade/expansion of business premises
• Purchase of capital plant and equipment

Priority sectors include:

• Manufacturing
• Knowledge Intensive Businesses
• Renewable Energy
• Environment
• Food and Drink and High Value Tourism (Tourism accommodation projects are not included due to alternative funding sources.)

Projects will have until 31st December to submit a completed Expression of Interest.

It is a competitive process and applications are invited from projects that are well-developed, are a good fit with the eligibility criteria and capable of starting spending in 2016.

Selected projects will be asked to progress at risk to Stage 2.

Final decisions will be made in April 2016, which will enable successful projects to commence.

For more information and to read summary guidance on RBGF, please visit: http://www.archnorthumberland.co.uk/north-east-rural-growth-network/rural-growth-network-news-events/ or contact Louise Liddle, RGN Implementation Officer on [email protected] or call 01670 528458.

It is anticipated that a further call for RBGF projects will be issued in February 2016.

Please note this fund will be in addition to the Strategic Economic Infrastructure Fund (SEIF). A Call for SEIF projects is currently open and more information is available here http://bit.ly/1PrSwjq

Category: Funding

Investing in the North East economy

Design agency grows business at The Hub

Local Growth Fund transport schemes update

Comprehensive Spending Review 2015 – key points

North East LEP reveals ten locations for region’s second Enterprise Zone

North East LEP votes to keep £120m fund under regional control

North East LEP secures second Enterprise Zone for the region

North East Rural Growth Network Releases New Rural Enterprise Funding

Rural Growth Network Grant Programme funding for 2016/2017 covering rural Durham, Gateshead and Northumberland