Regional Growth Fund.
7th May 2014
Dear Member You will re-call that the Sheffield City Region LEP successfully applied for some Regional Growth Fund (RGF) money to support small company schemes.
RGF is usually difficult for SME's to access because it works best for large projects but by doing this the LEP made it more accessible. Below is a latest position provided by David Grey (OSL) who works with Sheffield City Council to run the fund. 1. Against our allocation of £32m, we currently have bids for £34m levering £192m of private sector spend and forecast to deliver 3,300 jobs. The latter stats are well ahead of the national programmes. 2. By the end of Q1 2014, we had paid out to companies just over £12m - around half of our original allocation. This £12m levered in a further £32m of private sector investment. Projects in receipt of that funding delivered 484 jobs created and 113 (verified) safeguarded. That works out at £20k per job but remember these are only the early jobs, the rest will come over the next two years. 3. We have a total of £18.5m actually contracted levering a further £105m of private investment. These projects are due to deliver 1,742 jobs at just over £10k per job. This is a third of the cost per job set in our contract with BIS. 4. We have £1.7m (162 jobs) approved awaiting contract so this gives us just over £20m approved and contracted. In addition, we have £10m at various stages of appraisal, so I would say that the pipeline is extremely strong. This leaves just over £4m in what we would describe as early stage or on hold. 5. In terms of project numbers, the summary is: 62 contracted, 17 approved, 31 in appraisal and 8 on hold. In what is realistically an 18 month period, I think this represents a massive effort and success on behalf of the LEP, the panel, the Accountable Body and our LA partners. This is not only our view; the DCLG monitoring officer who is a member of our panel makes it clear that in terms of promoting the opportunity, our process, the function of the panel and (crudely) getting the money out, we are one of the best in the country. Richard Wright Executive Director
