Growing Business Fund Grant Panel Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)

Wednesday, 05 September 2018 | 10.00am - 12.30pm

Meeting Room G01 & G02, Centrum, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UG

Present - Panel:

Mike Burrows (MB)

ECC (Chair)

Dominic Keen (DK)

Britbots

Dr Sumathi Sundram

S&V Consultants Ltd

Daryl Griffiths (DG)

Burnett Barker Solicitors

In Attendance:

Jason Middleton (JM)

New Anglia LEP

Rose Joy (RJ)

New Anglia LEP

Julie West (JW)

New Anglia LEP

Neil Sargent (NS)

Finance East

Amanda Castell (AC)

Finance East

Hayley Johnson (HJ)

Finance East

Barry Henson (BH)

Suffolk County Council

Vimmi Hayes (VH)

Suffolk County Council

Actions from the meeting: Wednesday, 05 September 2018

Action:

SCC to issue revised Offer Letter to TML Precision Engineering Limited

Action:

Suggestions for new cases studies to please let JW know.

Action:

If any Panel member wishes to host a GBF Panel meeting, to please let JW know.

Action:

JW to update Terms of Reference as soon as possible.

Action:

JW to update guidelines and application as soon as possible.

Welcome

MB welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies

Apologies were received from Chris Dashper, New Anglia LEP; Stuart Ager, Finance East; Paul Stewart,

Center Parcs; Martin Ince, Martin Ince Communications; Jackie Potter, Gough Hotels; Max Applin; Max

Applin Consulting; Jeanette Wheeler, Birketts and Sandy Ruddock, Scarlet and Mustard

Quorum confirmed.

Declarations of Interest and GDPR

Declarations of Interest - No Declarations of Interest declared.

GDPR - MB reminded Panel members to hand all paperwork to RJ to shred at the end of the meeting and

to ensure Panel members delete emails with attachments.

Meeting Minutes: Panel Meeting Wednesday 01 August 2018

Confirmed with no amendments.

Update on Skills Hub - JM reported that discussions had been held with Nigel Best, Growth Hub

Manager and BEIS, to move the Skills Hub forward. As of Monday, 03 September 2018, agreement had

been given by BEIS to fund two full-time Skills Hub Advisers, to be based at the Growth Hub, to provide

dedicated advice and support to businesses to help improve their skills workforce.

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New Applications for Approval (2)

(a)

Zedbox UK Limited - Agreed to support

Approved Grant: £120,000

Six full-time jobs to be created.

(b)

Westover Vets Limited - Agreed to support

Approved Grant: £126,000

12.6 new jobs to be created.

General discussion took place on eligibility of applications for veterinary practices and potential

displacement. Agreed that this application was viable, and displacement was not an issue in this case.

General discussion took place regarding the quality of applications going forward and it was noted that

ideally the Panel would like to see in the content of the application information that identifies new

process, innovation and productivity.

Ratify applications (2)

(a)

DB Sheetmetals Limited (considered and approved by email in August) - Agreed to support

Approved Grant: £60,000

Three full-time jobs to be created.

(b)

TML Precision Engineering Limited - Update report

Approved to continue to support - Revised Grant: £95,294

Condition: Re-arrangement of project financing to be confirmed via Solicitors

Ten new jobs to be created.

Project much delayed, and significantly altered from that first present in January 2017.

Action:

SCC to issue revised Offer Letter to TML Precision Engineering Limited.

Small Grant Scheme

JM provided update. The Panel noted the award of seven Small Grant Scheme grants in the month of

July 2018, totalling £68,699 (Grants Awarded) and £343,517 (Total Project Cost). See Appendix 1.

JM reported there had been a slight fall-off in the number of Small Grant Scheme applications coming

through in August this was a normal expectation for the summer period and anticipates the numbers will

pick up during September/October.

ERDF Business Growth Programme extension (for Small Grant Scheme, Growth Hub and Start-

Ups) - JM reported that confirmation had been received from MHCLG for an extension to the Business

Growth Programme, for a further three years. Going forward, we (LEP) will be arranging a meeting is with

the Growth Hub to look at how grant mechanisms and processes can be improved/streamlined and how

best to pro-actively target businesses with high growth potential.

Based on the speed and pace of present applications being processed, the Small Grant Scheme Panel

will be looking to be more rigid in terms of quality applications. A new rule came into force whereby a

business will not be able to re-apply for a grant for 12 months from date of previous completed grant

application.

R & D & Innovation - JM reported that he will be putting together an ERDF application as part of the

October call for bids for an R& D and Innovation grant programme, for 3 years of funding, totalling

£1.5million, with an intervention rate of up to 50% for SMEs that is not currently covered under the SGS

and GBF programmes. If the bid is successful, the grant will run alongside the Small Grant Scheme and

Growing Business Fund programmes, to fill the identified gap for R& D & Innovation provision across

Norfolk and Suffolk.

Funding, Updates and Jobs Creation

BH provided update.

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Small Grant Scheme - to date x147 grants paid out totalling £1.32 million paid (equates to 86% of the

original funding). A further £725k grant is committed so already eating into the extension monies.

Growing Business Fund - Paid out £860k in August, giving a total overall spend of £2.1million, which is

75% of this year’s allocation.

With today’s approved grant totals (£401,294) the cumulative figure for GBF stands at £1.45million

committed which means we are £769k over-committed and therefore may need to ask for further monies,

depending on rate of defrayal.

Based on agreed spend there is a further £770k due out by the end of October.

Cumulative confirmed job creation now stands at 1,933 (up ten on last month). With an additional forty-

four confirmed jobs for the Small Grant Scheme (jobs not a requirement) which is a bonus.

File Updates - BH provided update on the following grants:

(a)

Zenos Cars

(b)

DoorPlan Contracts Ltd

GBF Applications ‘Pipeline’

NS and AC provided brief details of applications in progress. At present there are four applications.

One EOI.

PR and Marketing

JW provided update. Due to technical problems, the live play of new promotional video case studies was

deferred to next Panel meeting.

General discussion took place on case studies. Presently looking to produce a further a case study on

Renvale Limited.

Action:

Any suggestions for new cases studies, to please let JW know.

Any Other Business

Meeting Venues - JW reported that with the increased number on the GBF Panel, larger venues are now

required and currently looking to find new meeting venues.

Action:

If any Panel member wishes to host a GBF Panel meeting, to please let JW know.

Terms of Reference (ToR)

Action:

JW to update Terms of Reference as soon as possible.

Meeting Attendance - the issue of attendance was raised.

GBF Application and Applicant Facing Guidelines

Action:

JW to update guidelines and application as soon as possible.

The meeting closed at 12.10pm

Next Meeting: Suffolk Suite Center Parcs Elveden Forest Brandon, Suffolk IP27 0YZ

Wednesday, 03 October 2018 |10.00am - 12.30pm

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