Chamber News

Grants4 Growth

OverviewGrants4Growth is an £11m project delivered through the Local Enterprise Partnerships. It provides: capital grants for SMEs to purchase/install efficient new processes, production facilities and clean tech, helping them to invest-to-grow; revenue grants (East of England only) and other direct technical asistance to support SMEs to promote products/services such clean technology and renewable energy. Its function is to administer simple, straightforward grants and quantifiable action to improve efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and help your business invest to grow.

Is your organisation eligible?

Grants4Growth is targeted at Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) within the East of England – Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire plus Lincolnshire. In determining an organisation’s eligibility for support, there are five main factors, as follows. If you are in any doubt, just ask us and we’ll help you if we can.

1. Is it an enterprise? This is the ‘E’ in ‘SME’. An enterprise is ‘any entity engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form’. It is the economic activity that is the determining factor, not the legal form. Companies, partnerships, sole traders, charities, not-for-profits and community interest companies could all, therefore, be eligible provided they meet the other criteria.

2. Ownership structure SMEs need to be ‘autonomous’ and not subsidiaries of multinational conglomerates etc. In general, most SMEs are ‘autonomous’ since they are either completely independent or have one or more minority partnerships (each less than 25%) with other enterprises. If that holding rises to no more than 50%, the relationship is deemed to be between partner enterprises. Above that ceiling, the enterprises are deemed ‘linked’ or subsidiary. In other words, companies can be up to 50% owned by a third party and still be deemed ‘autonomous’. If in doubt, just ask us.

3. Other eligibility issues The EU defines SMEs by the size of their workforce, their turnover and their balance sheet. The current thresholds for SMEs as follows:

• Headcount (annual work unit): less than 250
• Annual turnover: no more than €50 million
• Annual balance sheet: no more than €43 million

SMEs don’t actually have to hit all eligibility criteria/thresholds. Whilst it is compulsory to respect the staff headcount thresholds, an SME may choose to meet either the turnover or balance sheet ceiling. It does not need to satisfy both and may exceed one of them without losing its status as an SME.

4. State aids Grants4Growth couldn’t give your organisation a grant (state aid) if if this would take the total state aid you’ve received during the preceding 3 years over around £150K. Under the EC regulation 1998/2006 (de minimis aid regulation) any de minimis aid (for example, our grant) awarded to a organisation will be relevant if they wish to apply, or have applied, for any other grant aid.

5. Specific sectoral exclusions A number of specific sectors – those which enjoy other non-ERDF subsidies are ineligible for support through Grants4Growth, such as agriculture, healthcare, education, fisheries, forestry etc. – if in doubt, just ask us.

Is your project eligible?

Grants4Growth distributes capital and revenue grants to eligible SMEs to catalyse growth and efficiency. The kinds of projects we can support are as follows.

1. Capital grants of up to 28% Capital grant support is available up to a maximum of 28% of total eligible expenditure. Applications are assessed on merit by a Grants Panel; the actual amounts offered are typically determined by the total eligible expenditure, the outcomes of the initiative and grant funding available. What kinds of things could our capital grant support?

a) investment in technologies or processes that lead to quantifiable growth, improve resilience or create/safeguard jobs b) efficiency initiatives in the form of waste, water or energy efficiency, recovery or reduction c) investment in technologies or processes that reduce the environmental impact of your operations

2. Revenue grants of up to 30% Revenue grant support is available up (except in Lincolnshire) up to a maximum of 30% of total eligible expenditure. Applications are assessed on merit by a Grants Panel; the actual amounts offered tend to be smaller than capital grants and are likewise determined by the total eligible expenditure, the outcomes of the initiative and grant funding available.

The kinds of things that our revenue grant could support include specialist consultancy and/or support and studies related to the promotion, marketing or mainstreaming of low carbon and environmental goods and services (LCEGS) sector products and services – clean tech and/or green tech.

How to Register

To find out if you could get grant support for your growth or efficiency projects, please complete the simple registration form. They will be able check your eligibility and appoint a dedicated business broker to quickly guide your idea through the grant application process.

Website:

https://www.grants4growth.org.uk

Any business person who has spent time this week queuing on the A47 due the work being carried out on the new Postwick roundabout, will have seen the completion date of April 2015 with a heavy heart. We know there is no gain without pain and to ensure the safety to the construction workers is essential, but the thought of our visitors as well as regular commuters dealing with the significant queues especially over the holiday periods is not a great prospect.

The Norfolk Chamber is pleased to see that Norfolk County Council and the Highways Agency have taken on board that changes to the traffic management arrangement needed to be reviewed and that these changes will happen on 29th May. We are advised that under the new arrangements, both lanes will be open on the approach to the safe working area, however the inside lane will be used only for traffic taking the slip road off the A47. All other Gt Yarmouth-bound traffic will have to move into the outside lane, and the inside lane will be closed from the slip road. The system will work by requiring drivers to ‘get in lane’ on their approach to the junction which should reduce delays.

To make this change, the A47 will be closed overnight on Thursday 29 May from 8pm. The maximum period of closure allowed is to 6am the following morning, but the road will reopen as soon as work allows.

• GDP figures for 21 2014 unrevised: 0.8% on the quarter, 3.1% year on year
• Full-year GDP growth in 2013 over 2012 is also unrevised, at 1.7%
• In Q1 2014 business investment rose by 2.7%, after 2.4% in Q4 2013
• The trade balance narrowed slightly from 4.2bn in Q4 2013 to 4.1bn in Q1 2014

Commenting on the revised GDP figures for Q1 2014 published today by the ONS, David Kern Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“The unrevised growth figure of 0.8% for Q1 was expected, although the additional detail provided by the ONS was particularly positive and will boost business confidence further. It is pleasing to see strong growth in business investment for the second consecutive quarter, and a welcome improvement in the trade balance. It is a shame however that exports declined in the quarter and the improvement in the trade balance was the result of an even bigger fall in imports.

“Some rebalancing towards investment and exports is taking place, but the pace is inadequate and efforts in these areas must be strengthened. Meanwhile, we are concerned that the MPC is not providing enough clarity to allow businesses to plan ahead and invest. After the welcome comments made by Governor Carney last week, Wednesday’s MPC minutes have produced an element of uncertainty. To maintain business confidence, it is important that the MPC makes a greater effort to communicate clearly and avoid potential contradictions.”

Norfolk Chamber members met for lunch today with Chuka Umunna, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to highlight the needs of business ahead of the May 2015 elections.

The lunch was hosted by Knowles Syfer Technology and a range of local businesses attended from sectors such as: energy; construction; manufacturing; engineering; and the professional services.

Mr Umunna outlined Labour’s 4 step strategy plan that will form their long term perspective through to 2030:

1. De-Centralisation – giving the necessary tools to each local region to best benefit each area. 2. Develop solutions to tomorrow’s problems today 3. Active Government – working in partnership to create a sustainable economy and strategic growth 4. Maintain an open outward approach to the world, with continued links to the European Union.

Local businesses raised issues such as the Living Wage, employment law, EU regulations, how to improve exports, Local Enterprise Partnerships and the planning system.

Caroline Williams, Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber said: “It was a great opportunity for the Norfolk business community to highlight the needs of business to the Opposition. The local business community and Norfolk Chamber members are working hard to drive economic growth in our County and need stability and focus from central Government to help them to achieve this.

Following on from a successful Regional Growth Funding bid, Norfolk benefits from £3.2 million of funding to support the development of the agri-tech industry in Norfolk and Suffolk, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.

Both Local Enterprise Partnerships, New Anglia LEP and The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP, are working in partnership to operate an Agri-Tech Grants scheme to support the development of new and innovative ideas within the sector. The LEPs are also receiving additional input from NIAB-TAG, Sainsbury Laboratories, John Innes Centre, University of East Anglia and Cambridge, the Norwich Research Park and Hethel Innovation.

There are two main funds that business located within Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, or Rutland, can apply for.

• The first is the £2 million Agri-Tech Growth Fund, which will provide grants of between £25,000 and £150,000 to support product development and improve agricultural productivity.

• The second is a £540,000 Research, Development and Prototyping Fund, which will help support the research and development of new product or processes with grants of between £10,000 and £60,000.

What projects would be considered for funding? You can find out more about two funds by downloading an overview of categories considered for funding here.

Are you eligible?For the eligibility criteria for both funds click here

Want to Apply?You can download the pre-qualification questionnaire here.

Need more information? If you would like to know more about the Agri-Tech grants you can also contact Martin Lutman via info@agritechgrants.co.uk or by calling 01480 277180.

It is great news that the Government has given its strongest indication yet that they are likely to provide funding to improve more sections of the A47 and Norfolk Chamber looks forward with interest to the Autumn Statement announcements.

The Roads Minister, Robert Goodwill, gave strong hints at a meeting with Norfolk MPs who raised the needs of the Norfolk business community for improved road infrastructure to ease congestion and access across the County.

Norfolk businesses have been working hard to compete in the current economic climate and business confidence is starting to grow. An improved A47 will make the east/west journey across our County easier and will particularly give exporters, based in West Norfolk, better access to all the ports on the East coast.

However proof is in the pudding and we need to see the hard evidence of the Government’s commitment to improving infrastructure in Norfolk.

In Norfolk, the borough of Great Yarmouth lead the way again with a fall of 13.7% in the unemployment figures. Norwich also saw a modest fall of 2.4% and King’s Lynn & West Norfolk saw a fall of 9.1%.

Great Yarmouth saw the number of 16-18 year olds claiming Job Seekers Allowance fall sharply, dropping by 16% over the last month. However some of this may be as a result of the approach of summer and the start of seasonal work, but the drop is still significant. For full details of the report click here.

The A47 eastbound carriageway will be closed for at least two nights this week at the junction with the A146 at Trowse, and it will not be possible to join the A47 eastbound at Postwick.

The closure will be in place from 8pm to 6am on Tuesday night, 13 May, and Wednesday night, 14 May. If work is not complete, two further nights will be used (Thursday 15 May and Friday 16 May).

Traffic will be diverted via the A146, A143, A12 to rejoin the A47 at Vauxhall roundabout. Traffic attempting to join the eastbound A47 at Postwick will be diverted across the A47 and via the westbound A47 to join the A146 diversion route at Trowse.

The closure is to allow barriers to be installed at Postwick to protect the workforce and the travelling public during the junction improvement work that began today (Mon).

Norfolk County Council apologises for the inconvenience caused by these overnight closures.

Further information on the Postwick scheme can be found here: https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/news/NCC147854 .

Would you welcome advice from a world renowned expert?

Victory Television, a major UK broadcaster, is making a new high-profile television series to be transmitted later this year and they are looking to contact business owners in your area. Theyare interested in small to medium sized companies with up to 100 employees. The business owner will work with a well-known entrepreneur across a number of weeks, exploring and testing out fresh strategies to suit their business. This series would suit a company dealing with new competition, the repercussions of the recession, or a decrease in customers or revenue.

They are keen to focus on businesses in the leisure, tourism, food, retail and manufacturing sectors. Ideally, they are looking for companies that are open to explore new ways of transforming their business and making them more profitable. This is an exciting opportunity to be featured on a prime time series and to create innovative ideas with one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs.

If you are interested in this opportunity, contact lucie_rose@victorytelevision.com or on 0207 4063057 to find out more information about this exciting new project.

About Victory Television Victory Television is an independent production company with a background in both factual and entertainment programmes, most famous for producing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and, more recently, Tough Young Teachers for the BBC.

On Friday 9 May over 80 Norfolk & Cambridgeshire Chamber Members attended our standing room only business breakfast to get the unique opportunity to network with neighbouring chamber members. Delegates heard from the two Local Enterprise Partnership’s that border West Norfolk and King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council.

The breakfast took place in the Great Barn at Knights Hill Hotel with our host for the morning, Norfolk Chamber President, Ian Hacon taking the delegates through the agenda. Ian introduced our event featured charity, King’s Lynn Festival, who told us about how the festival helps King’s Lynn and how support of their events is crucial.

The breakfast was buzzing with conversation as the cross-county networking started with one or our trademark ice breaker activities, guess my CV. Networking continued over breakfast and our safari networking got the delegates to take a seat at a new table and meet new people, making even more connections.

It was then time to hear from our panel of three keynote speakers; Chris Starkie, New Anglia LEP, Graham Nix, Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP& Cllr Nick Daubney, Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk about the progress they have made locally in the past year and their aims for the next 12 months.

Chris Starkie said “New Anglia LEP are aiming to have 95,000 more jobs by 2026”

Grahame Nix highlighted GCGP’s “Growing Places fund £500k in 12 £30k grants to charity – employment that are available to West Norfolk.”

Watch out for the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk “local investment board” that will be with us soon.

A Q&A session then took place with various questions from delegates to better understand the opportunities and funding that are open to them as a business and how they can influence their LEPs plans for the coming year.

Delegates had a lot of positive things to talk about on twitter;

Chaplin Farrant

“Great morning @norfolkchamber breakfast in Kings Lynn this morning – many thanks. #wellconnected”

Independence Matters

“At kings lynn @norfolkchamber#wellconnected event – first time and getting connected with some great future contacts!”

To view photos of the event, visit our Facebook page or Google+ page

The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership is delighted to announce that they have grants for businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk available until March 2015. The LEP has recently been awarded an additional £1.4m from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund to expand its existing Growing Business Fund and offer smaller grants of between £5,000 and £25,000 to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Businesses wanting to grow and create new jobs are now able to apply for grants of between £5,000 and £500,000.

The fund can provide up to 20% of the total funding needed for investment, and be used to leverage funding from other sources, such as banks and other financial organisations. Each application must also create at least one job for every £10,000 worth of grant. All payments are retrospective. For example, a company’s plans for growth might include a range of activities; expansion into a neighbouring unit, updating and buying additional equipment, creating a new website and developing a marketing campaign, the total costs of which are £50,000. The application to the Small Grants Scheme would demonstrate that the company has funding of £40,000 (from perhaps a bank and/or other sources); therefore the Small Grant Scheme application would be to fund a top up of £10,000 – 20% of the costs. For our £10,000 grant you would need to provide employment for a person, full time for at least one year.

A larger project might be to purchase new equipment to create a new production line. To expand this production a company might employ 3 new staff and an apprentice. The total project costs are £200,000 which includes some staff costs, professional fees, rewiring, training of staff to use the equipment etc. The application to the Growing Business Fund would show that the company has £160,000 from the bank and/or other sources; therefore the Growing Business Fund would fund a top up of £40,000; (4 x £10,000 per employee).

The New Anglia LEP is working in partnership with Suffolk County Council and Finance East delivering the programme. The application process is simple and straightforward; it can be as quick as 5 to 8 weeks for a decision. The process consists of the following stages:

• Expression of Interest form;
• Financial Appraisal;
• Growing Business Fund’s Approval Panel’s decision.

FACTS AND FIGURES Of the £12m GBF programme to date, the Approval Panel has agreed to support 35 projects (19 in Norfolk and 16 in Suffolk) worth of over £25.6m and to award grants in the amount of over £3.1m forecasting to create 495 new FTE jobs within the next 2 years. Click here to see a list of approved projects, have already been awarded with grants, the remainder are subject to contract.

To view the eligibility criteria for both funds click here.

CONTACTS:

Growing Business Fund £25,000 – £500,000

To register your interest in the Growing Business Fund and to receive an Expression of Interest Form, please contact Nataliya Klymko, Growing Business Fund Coordinator,nataliya.klymko@newanglia.co.uk tel: 01603 510073.

Deadline for returning completed Expression of Interest forms is 31st October 2014.

Small Grant Scheme £5,000 – £25,000

To apply for a Small Grant Scheme please click here.

Deadline for returning completed Expression of Interest forms is 31st December 2014.

Want to discuss your project? Contact Nataliya Klymko, Growing Business Fund Coordinator via email: nataliya.klymko@newanglia.co.uk or tel: 01603 510073.

Norfolk County Council has released the Quarter 4 data for January – March 2014. The report shows that business confidence is increasing, unemployment is falling and house prices are rising. Key sectors like energy, digital and ICT and Agritech are going from strength to strength. To read the full report, please click here.