City of York Council is urging local businesses to apply for regional funding in bid to support York’s economy.
The council’s Economic Development Team will offer advice to York-based companies that apply for the funding through the government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF).
Working with the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the council will help businesses formulate bids for projects, which directly create private sector jobs.
The minimum funding application is £1 million and bids must be supported by private sector funding of at least three times the value of the bid. However, for projects of less than £1 million, there is the potential to bid as part of a programme bid, several of which are being developed by the Leeds City Region LEP.
Katie Stewart, head of Economic Development, City of York Council, said:
A number of schemes across the region have already received funding through the Regional Growth Fund and we’re keen that York projects don’t miss out.
We’ll work with local businesses who want to apply for funding, providing advice with their application forms as well as strategic information and supporting economic statistics. We’re particularly keen to work with initiatives that support the council’s economic priorities and where businesses need less than £1m funding, the Leeds City Region will consider grouping smaller bids together.
Councillor James Alexander, Labour Leader of City of York Council, said:
I would urge any business that thinks they may be eligible for RGF funding to contact the council’s Economic Development team as soon as possible so we can help them with their application. We need to ensure that this funding is used to support York’s economy, as well as that of the wider region.
Information on the bidding process is available at: www.bis.gov.uk/RGF. The deadline for bids is noon on 13 June.
