/ NEWS Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 5
New funding up to £ 140k available to Aycliffe businesses
Residents of Aycliffe Business Park can now take advantage of new funding available for micro and small business.
The Durham Coast and Lowlands LEADER programme offers grant funding for businesses looking to expand, enhance productivity and create jobs.
Grants of between £ 2,500 and £ 140,000 are available for a variety of outlays including construction costs for factories, premises and workshops, improvement costs, equipment purchases and professional fees.
Both existing businesses and people wishing to start a new business can apply, while the grants are subject to an intervention rate of just 40 %, while not-forprofit activities can gain up to 80 %.
The grant comes from the Rural Development Programme for England( RDPE) and for the first time the whole of Newton Aycliffe is within the patch.
It is understandable businesses across the park to do not view themselves as a rural business, but it is clear that under this scheme the area if able to secure funding.
It is a huge opportunity for businesses in the area to gain capital funding. Key Facts about LEADER Funding
• Funding of £ 2,500 –£ 145,000.
• Funding needs to be committed by March 2018.
• Intervention rate of 40 % but non for profit activities can gain up to 80 %.
• Both existing businesses and people wishing to start a new business can apply.
• Key Priority for Businesses on the park would be the Micro and Small Business priority.
• There are also four other priority sectors that the grant will fund. These are Tourism, Culture & Heritage, Farm Productivity and Rural Services. Examples of Items which can be funded:
• Construction costs for factories, premises and workshops including expansion
• Improvement costs
• Equipment purchases( including second hand machinery)
• Professional fees including consultants, architects and engineers up to 15 % of the total project cost
To discuss a project idea or for more information please contact Project Coordinator Sarah Marshall at sarah. marshall @ durham. gov. uk or 03000 2668948.
£ 20m investment fund to boost businesses
A £ 20m investment fund to grow local businesses that aims to create thousands of jobs for County Durham has been proposed.
The scheme will see Durham County Council create Finance Durham, a standalone investment fund – the first of its kind in the North East – which will make financial investments in local businesses based in the county.
Although designed as an ongoing scheme, cabinet will hear that the modelling of the fund predicts the creation or safeguarding of 2,000 jobs, support for 500 businesses and direct investment in up to 70, all within the first 10 years.
As well as supporting companies already based in the county it is hoped that the fund will make County Durham an even better prospect for businesses looking to relocate, further boosting the economy through the creation of more jobs.
The scheme will make similar investments to those of a traditional venture capital fund, meaning that not only will companies benefit from the support but, by targeting businesses with potential for high growth, Finance Durham is estimated to make a return of around £ 6m in its first 10 years.
The council will have the option to realise these profits or keep them within a growing fund to invest in even more businesses. This will be in addition to a dividend of over £ 500,000 for the council over the first 10 years.
Although local authorities creating their own investment vehicle is an approach already used by some councils in the country, the fund will be the first of its type in the North East.
THE WORLD IS OUR OYSTER
So, here we are – just weeks after the referendum and the harbingers of doom are still queueing up to deliver their terrible prophecies for the future of our economy – bolstered by a bad first few days as the market has been adjusting to an unexpected change.
Hearing so many people – politicians, business leaders and civil servants – talking our country down over the course of the campaign, and since, is bad for business and poses a real risk of talking this country into recession.
But the future is bright outside the European Union.
As a committed Brexiteer, my prediction for the future of our nation is a good deal more positive: the long-term financial impact on the manufacturing economy will be either neutral or beneficial.
Ceasing EU export tariffs will drive UK manufacturing as the cost of imported goods increases – creating jobs, reducing the trade deficit and boosting GDP. And trade with our European customers isn’ t going to stop over night – we sell to individuals, not governments.
The big challenge for UK exporters is to understand the needs of our buyers and to satisfy them – not the bureaucrats in national and European governments, set on embalming international trade in red tape.
Above all, as the fifth largest economy in the world, the EU itself cannot afford to stop trading with us.
Whatever the rhetoric, they know, as well as we do, that our relationship with European Union members is mutually beneficial. This is our trump card, and so far, our politicians have been unprepared to play it.
Contrary to what the politicians and financiers say, incidentally the same who steered us into the 2008 financial crash, the UK is not too weak and fragile to survive outside the EU.
On the contrary, now we can make trade deals with whomsoever we like, control our borders, make our own laws, and forge greater links with the Commonwealth.
The world is our oyster, not just Europe.
This move puts us back firmly on the world stage where there’ s everything to play for and a world of opportunity at our fingertips
John Elliott Chairman, Ebac