Business growth grants on offer for Brighton and Hove firms

A £930,000 pot of money is being made available to help businesses in and around Brighton and Hove to grow.

Grants of between £5,000 and £100,000 are on offer to help expanding businesses take on more staff.

Three companies have already been awarded business growth grants totalling £69,000, attracting a further £100,000 of private sector investment and generating almost 20 private sector jobs.

The money was secured by the Coast to Capital (C2C) Local Enterprise Partnership. The LEP covers an area from Brighton and Hove to Croydon, taking in West Sussex and the Gatwick Diamond.

To qualify, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must be creating jobs and have funding to pay for 75 per cent or 80 per cent of the expansion project.

Brighton and Hove City Council, which is working with the LEP on the grant scheme, said: “The grants are designed to help businesses that have great growth plans but need some funding to help unlock their projects.

“Businesses will be offered free support to help with their application and applicants have access to a range of subsidised services to assist with their growth ambitions.”

It said: “Applications are particularly welcomed from high growth, high innovation and/or low carbon and environmental technology SMEs wishing to expand and diversify.

“Businesses in other sectors and those projecting modest growth are also being encouraged to apply.

“Applications have to show how the jobs created are new and do not merely displace those in similar businesses.

“Retail and hospitality businesses in particular will have to show a strong case for how their proposal is significantly different to anything else in the market.”

The scheme’s programme manager Hayley Shepherd said that grants could be spent on a wide range of business activities.

These could include research and development, product or service development, skills development, breaking into new markets, plant and equipment, business premises and other capital items.

The £930,000 was awarded to the Greater Brighton city region as part of its £1.79 million Regional Growth Fund programme.

This is intended to provide a range of business support across the C2C area, linking businesses to expertise in universities and specialist organisations experienced in helping to drive growth.

Interested businesses should complete a short expression of interest form, which can be downloaded here, as the first step of the application process.

For more information, click here www.coast2capital.org.uk/helping-business-growth/regional-growth-fund or email Hayley Shepherd at rgf@coast2capital.org.uk.