GBSLEP welcomes allocations from Regional Growth Fund

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has today (Thursday) approved an allocation to create a mezzanine loan fund across the Greater Birmingham & Solihull and the Black Country LEP areas in addition to a national tooling fund through the Regional Growth Fund.

The fund, when it gets up and running later this year, will make mezzanine-style loans available for growth capital of up to £2 million.

It will use the governance and delivery already used through the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative and build on the work of Birmingham City Council’s Loan Fund.

In addition, the Regional Growth Fund has approved a bid for a national Tooling Loan Fund for the automotive sector.

It will fund the expansion and increase the competitiveness of the existing tooling capacity by helping businesses secure new work as well as securing the repatriation of overseas-based tooling business to this country.

The fund also made allocations to three companies whose applications were supported by the GBSLEP: Jaguar Land Rover (three bids), NVC Lighting Ltd in Rubery and TRW Automotive in Birmingham.

Andy Street, GBSLEP Chair.

GBSLEP Chair Andy Street said: “We are delighted that bids for both programmes and individual businesses in Greater Birmingham from the Regional Growth Fund have been successful.

“We are already seeing the benefits of previous rounds of the Regional Growth Fund with the expansion of Birmingham Airport and the ongoing investments at Jaguar Land Rover.

“The new mezzanine fund will add to the increasing range of programmes we have available to businesses in Greater Birmingham, adding to the Green Bridge Fund, Business Development Programme and Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, among others.

“Significantly, it is yet another example of how LEPs can effectively work together to secure funding and another instance of where we have joined forces with the Black Country on shared priorities.

“The Tooling Loan Fund will further strengthen the advanced manufacturing base, providing loans to manufacturer supplies and tool makers in the supply chain, enabling them to capitalise on global market opportunities to increase their capacity.

“And it is also pleasing to see three businesses successfully securing support direct from RGF with backing from the LEP.”