Growing Business Fund Grant Panel Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)

Wednesday, 02 December 2020 | 10.00am - 12.30pm

Held via conference call on Microsoft Teams

Present - Panel:

Mike Burrows (MB)

(Chair)

Martin Ince (MI)

Martin Ince Communications

Paul Stewart (PS)

Center Parcs

Dominic Keen (DK)

Britbots

Daryl Griffiths (DG)

Burnett Barker Solicitors

Dr Sumathi Sundram (SS)

S&V Consultants Limited

Kathy Atkinson (KA)

Kettle Foods Limited

In attendance:

Julie West (JW)

New Anglia LEP

Jason Middleton (JM)

New Anglia LEP

Rose Joy (RJ)

New Anglia LEP

Barry Henson (BH)

Suffolk County Council

Amanda Castell (AC)

Finance East

Neil Sargent (NS)

Finance East

Welcome and Introductions

MB welcomed members to the meeting. Meeting quorate.

Not present on telecon call

Apologies received: Stuart Ager, Finance East, and Jackie Potter, Micropress Limited

Not present on the call: Chris Dashper, New Anglia LEP; Vimmi Hayes, Suffolk County Council and

Roberta Willner, Norfolk County Council

Declarations of Interest and GDPR

Declarations of Interest - KA pointed out a potential conflict with Lifeline 24 Limited based on company

proximity to Kettle Foods Limited.

Meeting Minutes: Panel Meeting held on Wednesday, 04 November 2020

Meeting notes approved.

Project updates - BH provided update on the following:

• Olympic construction Limited - with reference to the previous BR&R grant, BH confirmed that

this grant has now been paid and closed. This was an independent project and the new GBF

project is going ahead.

• Pink office Limited - this project is indirectly linked to the CTR Secure Services Limited project,

who had a grant approved in September 2020. BH confirmed notification had been received that

the land purchase for the two projects should take place in January 2021 which should enable

SCC to pay both grants in due course.

Matters arising

• GBF Panel Dates - the Panel noted the tentative dates for January 2021 are now the 13 January

and 20 January. JW to confirm which date in due course. Dates for February and March 2021

have been sent.

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New Applications for Approval (5)

(1)

Lifeline 24 Ltd - Agreed to support

£476,450 - GBER

33 new jobs created

AC provided background to the grant application and general discussion took place. The Panel

noted the money for the development of the new premises, and purchase of additional equipment,

will be made available when a sister company repays an intercompany loan next year in April

2021 and that assurance had been given to this effect by the company.

The Panel acknowledged that there is market demand for this service and noted the company is

having to expand as a result of the increase in sales, the majority of which is from the public

sector, and not reliant on contract.

Projected annual salaries for the proposed new jobs queried. AC outlined company progression

pay scheme and reassurance given.

(2)

Brisko Scaffolding Ltd - Agreed to support

£200,000 - GBER

18 jobs to be created

NS provided background to the grant application. The Panel noted that Brisko Scaffolding Limited

have been the recipient of a previous GBF award, which has been successfully completed, and is

also the recipient of a CBIL loan.

Assessed as a Medium sized business but NS pointed out that if connected companies are taken

account of, through shareholder ownership, then the business becomes a Large sized business.

Panel discussed the overall size of the company and it was agreed that it should be regarded as a

Large company in an Assisted Area.

Assisted Area status - BH pointed out that the Assisted Area status comes to an end on 31

December this year and the impact of this on the grant application. For the rules to apply, as they

stand, it would mean an extremely tight spend timescale for the company as they would need to

claim the £200k by the 15 December latest, to enable SCC payment prior to 31 December. On

reviewing the expenditure list, the site works are not expected to go ahead until January 2021

therefore the only expenditure that might be achievable is placing a deposit for the purchase of

vehicles, depending on lead time

The Panel discussed options as a way forward to progress the grant application. Panel agreed to

approve the grant application but conscious of the need to manage client expectation.

Recommendation: NS to communicate process around spend timescale.

(3)

HF Bond Limited - Agreed to support

£80,000 - GBER

Four jobs to be created.

AC provided background to the grant. Agreed this was a straightforward grant application with

good capital expenditure

(4)

Rossdales LLP - Agreed to support

£37,885 - GBER

Three jobs to be created.

NS provided background to the grant application. The Panel noted this is a high-profile business in

the local area, providing an important service that is committed to growth.

(5)

A further application was considered and declined by the Panel.

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Small Grant Scheme (SGS) | Growth Through Innovation (GTI) Updates

Small Grant scheme - JM provided update. Although SGS had slowed down last month, the scheme has

picked up considerably, and now about to commit all the money in the SGS grant scheme; an email has

gone out to this effect to the Growth Hub to manage client expectations. JM reported that there may be

over-commitment on the scheme due to some slippage, but this is being carefully monitored.

The Panel noted the award of 12 grants in the month of October 2020, totalling £79,717 (Grants

Awarded) and £ 398,600 (Total Project Cost) - see Annexe 1.

Action:

JW to circulate the November stats when available.

Growth Through Innovation (GTI) - JM provided update.

The Panel noted the award of three GTI grants in the month of October 2020, totalling £50,255 (Grant

Awarded) and £105,462 (Total Project Cost) - see Annexe 2.

JM reported the scheme has slowed up but in terms of pipeline there is one currently going through Due

Diligence and three applications are with the Growth Hub totalling circa £90k.

Business Resilience & Recovery (BR&R) Consultancy - JM provided update. Scheme still going well

and as of Monday, 30 November, have approved 105 grants, totalling £4m, which leaves less than £2m

in the pot. This is proving to be a very successful scheme.

Visitor Economy Grant/Wider Economy Grant schemes (VEG/WEG) - JM provided update. These two

small grant schemes sit under the Small Grant Scheme and, like BR&R, are a response to Covid-19 and

projects within those two schemes, totalling £250k, which leaves £70k left. The scheme runs to the end

of February so going to do another push over the next few weeks to spend the remaining money. The

grants are going quickly.

Funding, Updates and Jobs Creation

Growing Business Fund - BH provided update. In November/December have paid out £484k so that

has made good progress with payments. Total paid out is £1.322m, and with today’s approvals, another

£1.559m approved, leaves us with just under £900k still to be allocated which actually means in practice,

that all of this year’s original allocation of £2.79m has either been paid out, or committed, and we have

just ‘dipped’ about £100k into the additional £1m that the LEP provisionally allocated. On this basis, there

is a good chance of committing all the monies by 31 March 2021. There are a couple of claims currently

in progress to pay out this month, so the figures will increase further by Xmas.

Small Grant Scheme - BH provided update. There have been two more pay outs since the last Panel

meeting, so overall Programme total is now 313 grants paid, total paid out is £2.9m, with another 48

committed, but not yet claimed, totaling £440k; leaving £122k in the pot but there are a couple of grant

applications with the Panel of approx. £40k so with the others in the pipeline the SGS monies is almost

gone. BH reiterated the scheme may slightly over commit but as mentioned earlier there may be some

underclaim(s) or withdrawal(s) which will have the effect of putting monies back in the pot.

Growth Through Innovation Fund (GTI) - BH provided update. Have made the first three payments on

this scheme since the last Panel meeting, so money is now starting to go out, with another 22 grants,

totalling £358k: so, some progress on the GTIF

Business Resilience & Recovery Grant Scheme - BH provided update. 105 grants have been

approved, totalling just over £4m, leaving just over £2m still available. Out of the 105 grants, 29 projects

have been completed and closed, so there is still a lot of activity in terms of claims and SCC have quite a

number to get through by the end of December to meet the State Aid regulations when the Assisted Area

status comes to an end on 31 December so pretty hectic at SCC

Job creation - jobs are still being created so since the last Panel, another five jobs have been confirmed

for GBF and ‘old’ SGS and another two for SGS, so totals stand at 2384 and 147.5, respectively.

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GBF Applications ‘Pipeline’

Potential applications - Finance East have five potential cases to bring to the Panel in January 2021.

General discussion took place on a grant application that was deemed urgent in view of the nature of the

business in the Covid-19 supply chain. The Panel agreed to holding a one-off Extraordinary Panel

meeting on Wednesday, 17 December 2020 to accommodate this grant application submission.

General discussion took place on the pipeline. The Panel noted JW to meet with Chris Dashper, Head of

Programmes, this afternoon to discuss the GBF pipeline going forward.

PR and Marketing

JM provided update. Still continuing to prioritise and promote grants where there are funds available i.e.

Business Resilience & Recovery, Visitor Economy Grant/Wider Economy Grant, and growth Through

Innovation Fund. In terms of the VEG/WEG grants, the scheme was closed for new applicants because

there was a large pipeline, however, some of the these businesses have not come forward with their

application and now had over two months to apply so as the scheme is on ‘ a first come, first served’

basis, as of today the scheme has been re-opened on the LEP website and will be promoted through the

local tourism teams, the Economic Development Officers and other partners; the promotion will be done

in a controlled way so that client expectation is managed. The Panel noted that all the money must be

spent and claimed by the end of February 2021.

Comment made that the landscape for support is currently quite complicated and confusing with all the

grants and schemes on offer and query made how the message was being sent out to SMEs in the

marketplace.

Business Script - JM reported that the Business Script, outlining all the different schemes, produced by

the LEP Comms Team, is produced weekly and goes out to the LEP, Growth Hub, Local Authorities, and

all business support partners. The Business Script includes all the Local authority discretionary grants

and schemes run by the Business Rates team and this information is constantly being updated. In

addition to the standard Business Script there also an EU Exit version; the content of which is increasing

in size. Expecting to receive a script from Government within the next two weeks outlining EU exit

guidance which will be incorporated.

Observation made that we should anticipate a deluge of enquiries in January from businesses on EU Exit

queries. Noted that the message from Government is that if you import/export or do business with the EU

your business will be affected, but if there is a No Deal Exit from the EU it will not matter which country

you are trading with, the business will be impacted because of EU Trade Agreements.

EU Exit support - JM reported that in the process of obtaining some monies from BEIS to pro-actively

contact businesses, as well as get specialist support and advice, for businesses.

JM reported that, overall, we are all coping well, with the LEP, Growth Hub and Local Authorities all

working together, to provide a coherent and consistent message across to all partners.

Any Other Business

None.

The meeting closed at 11.38.

Extraordinary Meeting via conference call on Microsoft Teams

Wednesday, 17 December 2021 |3.00pm - 4.00pm

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