Regional businesses receive £450m

The government has recently announced details of the first £450m funding through the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and says the projects will safeguard or create over 120,000 jobs.

The RGF is designed to help businesses in areas of deprivation or that are vulnerable to cuts in government’s continuing bid to put more emphasis behind the private sector in driving the economy out of the doldrums.

In order to be eligible for funding, applicants had to demonstrate how they would create jobs and harvest further investment if successful in their initial bids. The first round of the funding has been spread among a variety of 50 different organisations and partnerships and is expected to instigate a total of £2.5bn in private sector investment while safeguarding jobs.

Projects that have received funding in the first tranche of funds include an extension of the Haribo factory in Wakefiled, Cleveland Potash, a manufacturer of fertilisers based in the North East, Turbo Power Systems, a company that designs and manufactures high performance electric motors and generators and the building of a manufacturing plant on the Lotte Chemical site in Redcar to develop resins for food and drink packaging.
There is time for companies to bid for cash through the second round of the competition with around a £1bn remaining in the fund.

To find out more about this and how to bid for funds visit www.bis.gov.uk

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