The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A new pot of money has been made available to accelerate new investment opportunities and increase economic activity across Greater Lincolnshire.
The Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership has announced the launch of a new Feasibility Fund worth £160,000.
Businesses and organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors can apply for grant funding of up to £50,000 towards detailed feasibility works on schemes which will lead to increased business development and job creation in Greater Lincolnshire.
An earlier Feasibility Fund, which opened in February 2016, distributed £216,500 to six schemes, including the Holbeach Food Enterprise Zone.
LEP director Ruth Carver said: “Many organisations have great energy and ideas that will help us to achieve economic growth, but sometimes they lack the capital required to undertake detailed technical and feasibility works.
“This fund will give those organisations a helping hand and will drive the best proposals forward to the point of commercial reality and delivery on site.”
Tim Mills, executive manager for growth at Breckland and South Holland district councils, said: “Holbeach FEZ is in a prime location for access to important routes as well as being within easy reach of Spalding, which is the heart of Lincolnshire’s food manufacturing, logistics, and horticultural sectors.
“Our £34,000 feasibility grant has enabled us to do key work on infrastructure, economic and other studies to make the FEZ investment ready. This means the FEZ can be a vehicle to showcase technical expertise, research and development across the sector, at the same time offering support and opportunities for related businesses to start, grow and flourish.”
The fund is now open for bids and will remain open until Thursday, November 21. Applicants will be expected to provide a minimum of 50 per cent of the costs and must outline how their scheme will help to address the cross-cutting priorities of the LEP’s Strategic Economic Plan.
For more information contact Cathy Jones by emailing cathy.jones@lincolnshire.gov.
An announcement of which bids are to be supported by the fund will be made by the end of January.
