Growing Business Fund Grant Panel Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)
Wednesday, 06 June 2018 | 10.00am - 12.30pm
Center Parcs, Elveden Forest, Brandon, Suffolk, IP27 0YZ
Present - Panel:
Mike Burrows (MB)
ECC (Chair)
Jeanette Wheeler (JWh)
Birketts (Vice Chair)
Martin Ince (MI)
Martin Ince Communications
Dominic Keen (DK)
Britbots
Paul Stewart (PS)
Center Parcs
In attendance:
Julie West (JWe)
New Anglia LEP
Chris Dashper (CD)
New Anglia LEP
Rose Joy (RJ)
New Anglia LEP
Neil Sargent (NS)
Finance East
Amanda Castell (AC)
Finance East
David Dukes (DD)
Norfolk County Council
Actions from the meeting: Wednesday, 02 May 2018
No Actions identified.
1
Welcome
MB welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2
Apologies
Apologies were received from Barry Henson, Suffolk County Council, Vimmi Hayes, Suffolk County
Council, Jason Middleton, New Anglia LEP, Stuart Ager, Finance East, Sandy Ruddock, Scarlet and
Mustard and Max Applin, Max Applin Consulting.
3
Declarations of Interest
No Declarations of Interest declared.
4
Meeting Minutes: Panel Meeting Wednesday, 02 May, 2018
Confirmed, with no amendments.
Recruitment - Eight applications have been received from good quality candidates. MB/JWe will compile
a short-list and set an interview date shortly. A further update will be given at the next meeting.
5
New Applications for Approval (2)
(a)
Approved Grant: Omega Ingredients Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £40,000
Two full-time jobs to be created.
(b)
Advance Engineering (UK) Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £98,600
Four full-time, one part-time and an apprentice role to be created.
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6
Small Grant Scheme Update
The Panel noted the award of fifteen Small Grants in the month of April 2018, totalling £140,104 (Grants
Awarded) and £696,105 (Total Project Cost). See Appendix 1. It was noted that there were eight grants
awarded in Suffolk and seven grants awarded in Norfolk.
7
Funding and Jobs Creation
JWe provided an update in BH’s absence. To date £171,000 has been paid out, with a further £700,000
expected to be paid out in June.
Committed spend stands at £1.722 million, plus todays agreed spend of £138,600.
Cumulative confirmed job creation now stands at 1,891 (up 24 on last month).
Small Grant Scheme - over 105 grants, totalling £891,000 have been paid out of £1.532 million budget.
This equates to 58%.
8
GBF Applications ‘Pipeline’
NS provided brief details of applications in progress. At present there are seven applications to be
submitted to the July meeting.
JWe advised of three new Expressions of Interest are being processed by the Growth Hub.
MB said it was good to see more and realistic projects coming forward.
9
PR and Marketing
GBF statistics for April 2013 - May 2018 were circulated to Panel for information.
JWe provided an update. PR & Marketing has been stepped-up and is progressing well. The GH profile
being raised and the new Growth Hub website is to be launched this month. The Growth Hub now have
two dedicated staff members in place (a Marketing & Communications Co-ordinator and an Events Co-
ordinator to progress PR & Marketing).
It was mentioned that the Growing Business Fund scheme was not being promoted as much as the Small
Grant Scheme. CD pointed out that the scheme was self-sustaining, as can be seen by the number of
applications coming through, whereas the Small Grant Scheme did need promotion, especially now the
programme has put in for a for a further three-year extension.
10
Any Other Business
Vice-Chair - If anyone is interested in taking over the position of Vice-Chair to approach MB.
The meeting closed at 11.15am.
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, 04 July 2018 |10.00am - 12.30pm
Centrum, Norwich | Meeting Room 3
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