Multi million pound fund boosted to support growing businesses across England
Selected projects and programmes for the fourth round of the government’s Regional Growth Fund have been announced today.
Selected projects and programmes for the fourth round of the government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) have been announced today by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.
The Deputy Prime Minister announced that 102 companies and projects that applied for funding have been successful, following the most competitive round of the Fund so far.
The companies will take a share of a £506 million pot of funding to attract significant private sector investment and create thousands of jobs across the country.
The half a billion pounds of investment will help to rebalance the economy by supporting these 102 different projects and programmes from all sectors, small businesses and local partnerships across England. This will help them to expand their operations, create new jobs and stimulate private sector growth – the government’s top priority.
Visiting Toyota in Derbyshire – one of the companies that will receive a share of the money, the Deputy Prime Minister said:
There are more people in work today than ever before – since 2010 we have helped create 1.3 million jobs in the private sector. That’s what the Regional Growth Fund is all about – and I’m extremely proud to have found extra money to invest in projects across the country that have plans for the future and want to recruit local talent that will make their businesses better.
The Regional Growth Fund is exactly what this country needs to go for growth - from family-run Cartwright Group in Manchester who are now expanding to create 300 jobs and train up to 30 apprentices every year for the next three years, to Toyota who will use the money to help increase their ability to develop and produce new generations of Toyota cars right here in the UK, securing jobs and creating opportunities for the future.
The different projects and programmes from this round will leverage £2.8 billion of additional private sector investment and create or safeguard 77,000 jobs. When added to the success of the first three rounds this represents a total of £15 billion private sector investment.
Earlier in the week the Business Secretary, Vince Cable visited Rofin-Sinar, a laser technology company in Hull to announce £2.4 million in RGF funding for a total of 14 companies through the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) programme. The different projects will create nearly 200 jobs and help secure a further £10 million of private sector investment.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said:
In tough economic times we need successful schemes such as the Regional Growth Fund which has been vital in stimulating private investment that would otherwise not have gone ahead. We have already helped over 2,600 SMEs through RGF programmes and recently announced a further £600 million RGF funding to be available from 2015 so that we can continue to support British business and manufacturing.
We are laying the right foundations for stability and good solid business growth as well as supporting sectors prioritised in the government’s industrial strategy – from automotive to oil and gas. Companies and their local economies are seeing the benefits of the Regional Growth Fund, creating jobs for the long term.
Roger Salomone, Head of Business Environment at EEF said:
The Regional Growth Fund has played a vital role unlocking a significant amount of private sector investment around the country, supporting businesses and promoting growth. The latest wave of investment is testament to the fund’s continued importance and the government’s commitment to extend it to 2017 is particularly welcome.
With significant new funding for organisations such as Local Enterprise Partnerships coming on-stream, we would like to see future regional growth funds focus on supporting business-led projects.
Business Minister Michael Fallon, who will visit Cab Automotive in the West Midlands to announce their Round 3 award today (Thursday 11 July) said:
The quality of applications was very high which is why we increased the pot to over £506 million to accommodate even more projects and programmes which will bring sustainable private sector growth and jobs across the country.
My focus has always been on delivery and the deadlines I introduced have helped speed up the awards process so that companies have more certainty to invest, hire and grow. We will now work with chosen bidders to quickly agree the terms of their offers and complete due diligence checks.
The government has also today published the first RGF Annual Monitoring Report (AMR), detailing the progress of RGF Rounds 1 and 2 up to March 2013. The report shows that for the first two rounds of the RGF:
- job creation is on target, with 32,000 jobs created or safeguarded against the 31,500 companies committed to create by March 2013.
- £1.2 billion has been invested by the private sector – estimates show that this will create or safeguard a further 26,600 jobs in the wider economy.
- together this represents 58,600 jobs that have been created or safeguarded so far. For Rounds 1 and 2 this is 20% of the way towards the overall job commitment made by RGF projects and programmes over their ten year lifetimes.
The Regional Growth Fund supports the government’s industrial strategy and key sectors including automotive, aerospace, energy and life sciences. Tomorrow (Friday 12 July) the government and the automotive industry will set out a new industrial strategy to foster the next phase of growth in the sector.
Notes to editors
1.The Round 4 pot was increased to £506 million from the original £350 million announced. This comes from recycling existing RGF money which has been previously allocated to a project or programme but the amount of investment changed or the bid was subsequently withdrawn.
2.Broken down for Round 4, £314m will go directly to the private sector, comprising 60 awards to companies and 12 private sector run RGF programmes. £192m has been awarded to 30 other programme beneficiaries such as local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to support local growth priorities in their areas.
3.The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is a flexible and competitive £3.2 billion fund operating across England from 2011 to 2017. It supports projects and programmes that are using private sector investment to create economic growth and sustainable employment. For further information please visit www.gov.uk/understanding-the-regional-growth-fund
4.The 102 selected companies and intermediaries were whittled down through a competitive process from a long list of 309 applications which asked for over £1.9 billion.
5.In the latest spending round the Treasury announced a further £600 million funding for the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) across 2015-16 and 2016-17 to support projects and programmes to create economic growth and sustain private sector employment.
6.Please contact the BIS press office for further case studies.
7.You can follow @bispressoffice, @bisgovuk, @RGFgrowthFund and @DPMoffice on twitter for further RGF updates and photos from the Ministerial visits on Thursday 11 July.
8.List of bidders with conditional offers by region.
Breakdown by Region
| East Midlands | £ 47 m |
| East of England, London, South East | £60 m |
| Nationwide | £145 m |
| North East | £48 m |
| North West | £81 m |
| South West | £19 m |
| West Midlands | £57 m |
| Yorkshire and Humber | £50 m |
North West
List of bidders with conditional offers
- Accelerating Business Growth PLUS (Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council - Programme)
- Bright Future Software Limited
- Unleashing Cumbria’s Potential (Cumbria County Council - Programme)
- Cygnet Group Limited
- EA Technology Limited
- Turning Discovery Science and Knowledge into Jobs and Growth (GM Local Enterprise Partnership - Programme)
- Helical Technology Limited
- Liverpool City Region Small Business Support Fund (Liverpool City Region LEP - Programme)
- N Brown Group Plc (Programme)
- Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics Ltd.
- Patterson & Rothwell Limited
- Redx Pharma Ltd
- Sidcot Investments Limited
- St Helens Jobs and Growth Fund (St Helens Chamber - Programme)
- Tratos Ltd
- Unilever UK Central Resources Limited
- Catalyst for Growth (University of Chester - Programme)
- Vix Technology (UK) Ltd
Yorkshire and Humber
List of bidders with conditional offers
- Beatson Clark Ltd
- Paull Strategic Employment Site : Capturing Siemens Tier 1 Suppliers (East Riding of Yorkshire Council)
- Harrison Spinks Beds Ltd
- The enhanced Business Growth Programme (Leeds City Region LEP - Programme)
- Developing the UK’s Leading Food Manufacturing Cluster in Greater Lincolnshire (North East Lincolnshire Council - Programme)
- Optare Plc
- Really Useful Products Limited
- Unlocking (more) Business Investment (Sheffield Council - Programme)
- Silkstone Finance Limited
- Centre for Innovation in Rail (University of Huddersfield)
- York, North Yorkshire & East Riding Business Grant Programme
West Midlands
List of bidders with conditional offers
- GBS Mezzanine Funding Programme (Birmingham City Council Programme)
- Coventry and Warwickshire Business Finance (Coventry and Warwickshire LEP - Programme)
- The Marches and Worcestershire Redundant Building Grant Programme (Herefordshire Council - Programme)
- Jaguar Land Rover Ltd
- Jaguar Land Rover Ltd
- Jaguar Land Rover Ltd
- King Automotive Systems Ltd
- Malvern Instruments Ltd
- NVC Lighting Ltd
- Robinson Brothers Ltd
- Growing Priority Sectors in the Black Country (Sandwell MBC - Programme)
- Innovative Growth in Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire (Stoke on Trent City Council - Programme)
- Tata Steel UK Ltd
- TRW Automotive - College Road
- Wade Ceramics Limited
- Worcestershire Expansion Fund (Worcestershire County Council - Programme)
North East
List of bidders with conditional offers
- Air Fuel Synthesis Ltd / Crane Services (UK) Ltd
- JDR Cable Systems Limited
- JDR Enterprises Limited
- Molplex Limited
- NET Power Europe
- Tees Valley Innovation and Skills Growth Hub (Stockton Borough Council - Programme)
- Sunderland City Deal Infrastructure Development (Sunderland City Council - Programme)
- Bringing Finance to Businesses in the North East (Sunderland City Council - Programme)
- Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd.
- Tinsley Special Products Limited
South West
List of bidders with conditional offers
- AgustaWestland Limited
- Atlantic Inertial Systems Limited
- Avanti Communications Group plc
- Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd
- Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells Ltd (JMFC)
- Marine Current Turbines Ltd
- GAIN Growth Fund Plus (Plymouth City Council - Programme)
- Trackwise Designs Ltd
- Innovation for Growth Programme (University of the West of England - Programme)
East of England, South East
List of bidders with conditional offers
- Eastern England Agri-Tech Growth Initiative (Cambridgeshire County Council - Programme)
- Coast to Capital City High Growth and Innovation Fund (Coast to Capital LEP - Programme)
- Cummins Power Generation Limited (CPG)
- e2v Technologies (UK) ltd.
- East Sussex Invest (East Sussex County Council - Programme)
- Element Six Limited
- Fianium Limited
- GE Aviation Systems
- Harwell Science and Innovation Campus GP
- SUCCESS - Southeast Urban Coast Creative Enterprise Support Scheme (Hastings Borough Council - Programme)
- Escalate - the Innovation and Growth Fund (Kent County Council - Programme)
- Portsmouth/Southampton (Programme)
- STRUCTeam Ltd
- New Anglia Growing Business Fund (Suffolk County Council - Programme)
- TAG Farnborough Airport Ltd
- The Oxford Trust/Science Oxford
- SPI Lasers UK Ltd
East Midlands
List of bidders with conditional offers
- UK Stem Cell Provision (Anthony Nolan)
- Bifrangi UK Limited
- Chinook Sciences Limited
- “Global Derbyshire” Small Business Support Programme (Derbyshire County Council - Programme)
- Dynex Semiconductor Limited
- Fairline Boats Limited
- Frontier Agriculture Ltd (Programme)
- Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership Accelerating Prosperity Programme (Leicester City Council - Programme)
- Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership (Programme)
- Oclaro Technology Ltd
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd
- The Lincoln Growth Fund (University of Lincoln - Programme)
- VF Northern Europe Limited
Nationwide
List of bidders with conditional offers
- Tooling Loan Fund (Birmingham)
- Community Development Finance Association
- Creative England
- Deutsche Leasing UK Ltd
- Five Arrows Leasing Group Limited (FALG)
- HSBC
- Wave 2 City Deals Growth Hubs
- RBS
9.The government’s economic policy objective is to achieve ‘strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries’. It set four ambitions in the ‘Plan for Growth’, published at Budget 2011:
- to create the most competitive tax system in the G20
- to make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
- to encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
- to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe.
Work is underway across government to achieve these ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which the government wants the economy to travel.