By Richard Johnstone | 31 October 2011
More than 100 organisations across England will share £950m in the latest awards from the government’s Regional Growth Fund.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the cash would safeguard or create more than 200,000 jobs.
The £1.4bn fund was set up to expand and create new jobs. It awards money to private sector businesses and to local partnerships between public sector organisations and companies.
Around 37,000 jobs will be created directly by the successful firms, with the rest projected to be in their supply chains.
The winning bids vary from a research and development project to develop a new engine for a range of Bentley cars to export to China to the accelerated regeneration of Bradford city centre.
Bradford Metropolitan District Council formed part of this proposal, one of 13 councils in successful schemes. Three Local Enterprise Partnerships were also part of winning bids.
Clegg said that the government funding would lead to almost £6bn in additional private investment – at least £5 for every £1 of public money.
This is the second round of funding from the scheme. The first was announcedin April, when 50 projects shared £450m.
Clegg said: ‘The first pot of Regional Growth Fund money is already making a difference across the country – helping to rebalance our economy so that every region and sector benefits.’
Business Secretary Vince Cable said that the announcement would provide ‘a very significant boost to local communities’.
According to the figures released by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the biggest direct jobs impact will be in the Northeast of England, where 8,500 jobs will be protected or created by the 49 successful bidders. In the Northwest, 7,800 direct jobs will be safeguarded or developed by the 34 winning companies. The seven winning companies in the Southeast will provide or protect around 7,400 direct jobs.
There are also four national bid winners, which will create or protect 200 direct jobs and 16,500 indirect jobs. Winners in this category include banking group Santander andtourist board Visit England.
The 492 bids were assessed by an independent advisory panel chaired by former Conservative deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine.
Successful proposals will be subject to legal checks before they start to receive funding next spring.
A full list of the 119 winning companies, and the direct and indirect job projections, is available here.
The CBI welcomed the announcement, which it said would help boost medium-sized companies.
However, deputy director general Neil Bentley said that the money is not enough to ‘plug the finance gap’ faced by these companies. ‘The government needs to look at other funding options to help these firms grow, such as opening up bond markets to medium sized businesses,’ he said.
