The Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has welcomed today’s announcement that its bid to Round 3 of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund has been successful.
The £30 million “Growing the Humber” bid was drawn up by the LEP and North East Lincolnshire Council with support from business leaders and the other Humber local authorities.
It includes a £10 million programme to support the renewable energy sector on the South Bank of the Humber, with grants to support new investment, skills and research and development. It will enable businesses there to access a similar level of support to that available on the North Bank through an earlier Round 2 bid, and a consistent offer to be made across theHumberto potential inward investors.
The second part of the bid is a £20 million business expansion programme to support growth in other key Humber sectors including logistics, food and digital. The LEP will work with local partners to give businesses support to grow and make grants available through a competitive fund.
The funding from Government will bring in at least a further £125 million funding from the private sector.
The programme will go live in the New Year once agreements have been finalised with Government.
Lord Haskins, Chairman of the Humber LEP , said: “This is a big win for the LEP and its partners that will help us to grow the Humber economy. It is another reminder of what can be achieved when businesses and local authorities come together across the Humber.
“The fact that a third of the bid is for renewable energy shows again the confidence Government has in the Humberto deliver with this sector. We now have a comprehensive package of support across the area to further strengthen the Humber’s leading offer for manufacturing, installation, operations and maintenance.
“The £20m business expansion programme will enable us to support job creation in other key sectors, and we look forward to working with partners to deliver that.”
Councillor Chris Shaw, Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “This significant success cements the role of the Humber in being central to the growing offshore wind industry and the jobs it will create. We are absolutely delighted that our hard work in pushing the potential of Grimsby to deliver long term operations & maintenance servicing to the wind farms has been recognised. Our job is to now accelerate investment and add to the list of companies that have already chosen to locate in Grimsby such as Siemens, RES and Centrica. We will work with public and private sector partners across the Humber to achieve this in both the renewables and other key sectors.”
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Press release, October 19, 2012; Image: abb