Issue - meetings

To seek Cabinet’s approval to allocate a further £250,000 to the SME Growth Fund scheme, in order that the Council’s work to stimulate enterprise, innovation, business and employment growth via this mechanism can continue.

RESOLVED that the SME Growth Fund scheme be allocated a further £250,000 from unallocated resources in the Council’s Business Investment and Growth budget.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Investment and Growth Portfolio Holder (A.7) which presented a progress report on the SME Growth Fund.

Cabinet recalled that, at its meeting held on 20 April 2018, it had decided to extend the Council’s SME Growth Fund to 31 March 2020, and to widen the focus of the scheme to include all non-retail sectors. To fund that extension Cabinet had allocated £250,000 from uncommitted funding which at that time was set against the Growth Fund Budget.

It was reported that since April 2018 five applications had secured a positive appraisal and had been awarded grant funding totalling £261,853. A further two applications were currently in the pipeline but had yet to be progressed to the Full Application stage. In addition several businesses were in the process of registering their interest in securing grant funding through the scheme.

Members were informed that, overall, since the scheme’s launch in late 2015, ten applications had been supported by the Fund. This equated to a total grant allocation of £400,104 (which included £125,000 that had been provided by Essex County Council when the scheme had first launched).  This funding would create 37 new FTE jobs and safeguard 17.5 FTE jobs, and leverage £831,852.31 in private sector investment. This level of investment in the economy of the District represented a positive return on the Council’s financial contribution to businesses via the scheme.

Given the success of the scheme, Cabinet was therefore requested to allocate a further £250,000 to the SME Growth Fund scheme, in order that the Council’s work to stimulate enterprise, innovation, business and employment growth in the District via this mechanism could continue.

With the permission of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Watling MP addressed the meeting on the subject matter of this item.

Having considered the information provided in the progress report:-

It was moved by Councillor Fairley, seconded by Councillor Stock OBE and:-

RESOLVED that the SME Growth Fund scheme be allocated a further £250,000 from unallocated resources in the Council’s Business Investment and Growth budget.