Member Article

£6m Euro cash boost for North East firms

North East business has received a £6m cash boost from Europe.

Northumberland Business Service Ltd (NBSL) has announced that it has received the cash to deliver the North East Business Support Fund for the next two years.

More than 3,000 SMEs will receive financial help to bring in external expertise to grow their business helping increase economic growth in the North East.

The European Regional Development Fund Competitiveness Programme 2007-13, which is managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government, is investing nearly £6m in Stimulating Business Growth in the North East, which is run by NBSL.

Each eligible SME will receive a minimum of 12 hours business support to help identify their growth potential resulting in over 3,200 businesses being assisted with improved performance.

The project will offer a subsidy up to 40 per cent, to a maximum of £1,400, to help the SMEs access external expertise to achieve their growth plans.

Communities Minister Baroness Hanham CBE said: “It is the help of experts in providing support, mentoring and specialist advice, which enables business to grow confidently.

“I’m pleased that the provision of this funding will do just that helping businesses to increase their profitability and the creation and safeguarding of a significant number of jobs.

“Private sector growth is vital to a strong economy, particularly in the small and medium enterprise sectors, and this project will play an important role in strengthening the North East’s business base contributing to the growth of the local and national economy.”

Each SME will benefit from an impartial business adviser and the team will offer advice and support, working to develop a business development action plan which will identify key issues and the business improvement or impact potential of the SME.

John King, North East business support manager at NBSL, said: “Through working with businesses on the first ERDF-funded project it was clear that there was a market failure with businesses advising that they need the stimulus of this type of intervention and the subsidy provided in order to bring in the right external expertise to help businesses develop their growth plans and turn them into reality.

“This new North East Business Support Fund will allow a much greater volume of eligible businesses to receive help.

“We will support a wide range of projects including business strategies, marketing, finance, HR, process improvement, product development and e-commerce development”

Interested businesses can find out more at www.nbsl.org.uk or by calling 01661 813322.

The European Regional Development Fund Competitiveness Programme 2007-13 is bringing over £300m into North East England to support innovation, enterprise and business support. It will help create and safeguard 28,000 new jobs, start 3,000 new businesses and increase the region’s productivity by £1.1bn per annum.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .