Grants4Growth fund for businesses relaunches with another £1.3m

A grant scheme that secured and created a vast amount of jobs in South Holland is being relaunched with £1.3million of new funding available to businesses in the district.

Small and medium-sized businesses in South Holland can apply for a slice of the funding under the Grants4Growth scheme, which saw grants of between £1,000 and £40,000 awarded in two years to 107 businesses before it concluded previously in 2015.

Nick Worth, South Holland district councillor with responsibility for growth and commercialisation, said: “The Grants4Growth scheme was hugely successful last time around and we are really pleased because there has been a huge amount of interest from local businesses in pulling down some of that funding.

“It’s a really good one for people that want to invest in their businesses and grow their businesses and it’s a really simple application. It’s good to get that sort of investment into the area.
“It’s good for the environment too as a lot of these schemes are around investing in technology that improves efficiency.”

South Holland District Council has secured the  investment to revive the project via an application to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for European Structural Investment Funding (ESIF).
Coun Worth said it had been hoped to launch this new scheme at the end of last year but it was delayed by uncertainty over whether the funding would still be available due to Brexit.
The past awards were said to have helped create 85 new jobs whilst safeguarding 443 positions and  produced an estimated aggregate increase in turnover of £5.6million among the firms that benefited.

The scheme is devised to allow investment to facilitate growth, improve resilience and create jobs; improve waste, water or energy efficiency and/or enable new processes.
Previously it helped enable diverse projects such as Simon Barker Plumbing and Heating to replace two new vans, which allowed it to invest in a second apprentice, whilst fellow Spalding firm Welland Power was helped to bring a second warehouse into use.

As reported in The Voice, Welland Power was recently featured in The Sunday Times’ Fast Track SME Export Track 100 league table and has added significantly to its employee numbers.
The new scheme is now open. For more details see grants4growth.sholland.gov.uk