To date the Government has not provided any direct support for Local Enterprise Partnerships’ running costs. However, Local Enterprise Partnerships can make bids into a number of potential funding pots to support economic growth.

Growing Places Fund
In February 2012 the Government confirmed that the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership will receive £10.9 million of Growing Places Funding. The fund has been created “to help boost economic growth by getting the required infrastructure built to enable the creation of new jobs and homes by getting stalled projects moving again”.

A call for potential projects requiring funding will be issued in the near future.

Regional Growth Funding
Allocated by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) the Regional Growth Fund is a new £1.4 billion three year fund to support projects that stimulate private sector led sustainable growth and employment across England.

We submitted two bids directly, and supported a further four bids, to the first round of funding, but unfortunately were unsuccessful. Only one bid in the Greater South East and Eastern region as approved in the first round. We will now be working hard with our partners to develop bids for the second round of funding.

Capacity Funding
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has created a funding stream to help develop knowledge and capacity within the Local Enterprise Partnerships, from training new Board members through to drawing together different local economy strategies. The £4 million will be issued over four years, with the first £1 million of funding announced on 12th May 2011. The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP was awarded £48,000.

Enterprise Zones
The new Enterprise Zones reflect the Government’s core belief that economic growth and job creation should be led by the private sector. The Zones will be focused on removing barriers to private sector growth with lower tax levels for business and a reduced planning regime and a lighter regulatory and administrative burden.

The LEP submitted a successful bid for Alconbury Airfield, and we are now working hard to make this proposal become a reality. You can download and review the full bid document here and find out more about the bid success announcement here.

LEP Start Up Fund
On 12th May 2011,  the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced the launch of a new one year, £5 million LEP Start-Up Fund. The Fund is designed allow LEPs to quickly put their core operational capacity in place, before becoming ultimately self-sustaining.

On Tuesday 2nd August 2011 BIS confirmed that the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership has been awarded £220,500 from the Start Up Fund (90% of its total bid). You can find out more about the announcement here.

We will be submitting bids for all of the funds named above, as well as looking for other forms of innovative funding and support from our partners.

European Funding
The Board has endorsed the proposal from the Project Board to focus on EU funding as one of the Local Enterprise Partnerships’ areas of activity. We will be working with colleagues in local authorities and central Government, as well as with the East of England Brussels office to develop our ability to draw down EU funding for our area.

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