The Government’s Regional Growth Fund will invest £300 million in 50 projects across the country to create tens of thousands of jobs and fuel business expansion, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced today.
Today’s funding from Round 5 of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is expected to unlock £1.9 billion of additional private sector investment and create or safeguard thousands of jobs, while also generating thousands of jobs in the supply chains. The RGF is a Government pot to create sustainable employment and growth in a wide range of sectors across the country. The fund supports areas that are traditionally more reliant on the public sector to increase private sector investment and encourage businesses to expand. This type of targeted investment helps to boost growth throughout the country and rebalance our economy.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:
“Today we are investing more than £300 million to create thousands of jobs through the Regional Growth Fund. This is a vital fund that has already helped over 400 projects and 3,500 small and medium sized enterprises.
“This money will help unlock nearly £2 billion of additional private sector investment that will create sustainable and long-term jobs.
“We’re seeing very encouraging signs that the British economy is on the road to recovery. Home-grown and British-based businesses are leading that charge for a stronger economy. The Regional Growth Fund gives businesses a helping hand from Government to fuel business expansion and create sustainable employment.
“When this Coalition Government took office in 2010, the economy was on its knees. I’ve made it a priority to ensure that as the economy recovered, all the regions benefited too. “I pay tribute to the ambitious companies who are using the Regional Growth Fund to create jobs locally, helping to build a stronger economy and doing it fairly.”
Ministers will be visiting RGF projects across England today to see how the fund is helping to rebalance the economy. The Deputy Prime Minister will be in Merseyside where he will visit two companies who have been awarded funding from the RGF:
- At cooker manufacturer Glen Dimplex he will talk to staff about how the company will use their £3 million Round 5 RGF investment to expand their business, creating hundreds of jobs and boost the local economy.
- He will also visit electrical cable manufacturer Tratos to talk to staff about how their RGF Round 4 investment of nearly £3 million is being used to expand the business and create and safeguard about 100 jobs for local people.
Business Secretary Vince Cable will visit automotive specialist Millbrook later today, a successful bidder in Round 5. He said:
“Our Industrial Strategy is creating stable foundations for a sustainable, long-term recovery in which opportunity and growth is fairly spread across the country. The Regional Growth Fund will help increase our exports, expand our capacity for innovation and drive up the quality and range of our skills base and supply chain.
“The awards we’re announcing today like that of Millbrook see every £1 of government funding leveraging in £6 of private capital. They will support sectors from aerospace and automotive to tourism, and the benefits will be felt into the mid 2020s and beyond.”
Business Minister Michael Fallon added:
“As we work to secure the recovery, every new job and every new pay-packet counts. The Regional Growth Fund is about backing companies and sectors that have the vision and capability to create long-term growth, but need extra support to realise this potential.
“We have fine-tuned the fund – improving its governance and getting money into the hands of businesses more quickly – and I’d strongly encourage any firms that can generate significant private sector investment and sustainable jobs to bid for a share of the next round we’re launching this summer.”
