Member Article

North East SMEs to prosper from Investment for Growth funding increases

Investment for Growth has announced it is increasing the value of the project size it can consider when awarding funds to the region’s small to medium-sized enterprises.

The scheme, funded by the European Regional Development fund, has increased its upper limit project criteria to £15k, and is calling for the North East’s SMEs to take advantage of the opportunity before it’s too late.

Managed by BE Group, Investment for Growth is able to award funds to SMEs in the North East who are planning to improve their business through investing in growth projects, and provides grants up to 40% of the total project value, meaning the scheme can now award up to £6k towards the cost of a project.

It is estimated that the fund will run to the end of December and possibly into the beginning of 2015.

However, once the fund is fully committed, which could be before the New Year depending on the amount of applications submitted, the scheme will come to a close.

Businesses eligible to receive a grant from Investment for Growth must be based in the North East, employ fewer than 250 people, turnover less than 50 million euros, and trade on a business to business basis.

Project Manager at Investment for Growth, Karen Jones, said: “We’re delighted to be able to increase the value of the project size we can consider when awarding grants as it gives us an opportunity to support even more regional SMEs.

“While our upper limit has increased to £15k, we would still encourage businesses with project sizes slightly above the threshold to contact us, as we may have a degree of flexibility in the awarding criteria; we want to be able to support as many regional SMEs as possible further boosting the local economy.”

“We’ve already helped over 1,000 North East-based businesses to create over 1100 new jobs and safeguard over 1500 existing roles.

“We continue to receive a steady stream of new applications, and given this news expect many more, so we would encourage businesses to talk to us at the earliest opportunity.”