Growing Business Fund Grant Panel Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)
Wednesday, 06 March 2019 | 10.00am - 12.30pm
Centrum (Meeting Room G01 & G02), Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UG
Present - Panel:
Mike Burrows (MB)
(Chair)
Jeanette Wheeler (JWh)
Birketts
Martin Ince (MI)
Martin Ince Communications
Paul Stewart (PS)
Center Parcs
Daryl Griffiths (DG)
Burnett Barker Solicitors
Jackie Potter (JP)
Micro Press Limited
In Attendance:
Vimmi Hayes (VH)
Suffolk County Council
Jason Middleton (JM)
New Anglia LEP
Julie West (JW)
New Anglia LEP
Rose Joy (RJ)
New Anglia LEP
Alan Herbert (AH)
New Anglia LEP
Barry Henson (BH)
Suffolk County Council
Neil Sargent (NS)
Finance East
Guy Gibson (GG)
New Anglia Growth Hub
Actions carried forward
Condimentum Limited - JW provided update. Still negotiating employment transfer. General discussion
took place. Clarification required.
Actions outstanding from the meeting: Wednesday, 06 February 2019
Weco Engineering Limited - NS provided update. Not yet received confirmation of their planning
permission, despite being chased.
1
Welcome and Introduction
MB welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions made round the table.
2
Apologies
Dominic Keen, Britbots; David Dukes, Norfolk County Council; Dr Sumathi Sundram, S&V Consultants
Ltd; Stuart Ager, Finance East; Amanda Castell, Finance East and Chris Dashper, New Anglia LEP
3
Declarations of Interest and GDPR
Declarations of Interest
Kiezebrink UK Limited - JWh declared an interest on behalf of Birketts, who are currently acting on
behalf of Kiezebrink UK Limited. JWh not personally involved, therefore no conflict of interest.
General discussion took place on Declarations of Interest.
4
Meeting Minutes: Panel Meeting held on Wednesday, 06 February 2019
Minutes confirmed.
Page 1 of 5
5
Terms of Reference
Review and discussion took place on the content of the Terms of Reference, with amendments to be
made under the following headings:
Membership and Appointment
The Committee will comprise of a minimum of seven voting members.
At least two members of the Panel will be private sector LEP Board members, of which one will be on the
LEP Investment Appraisal Committee.
Meeting Frequency
Panel Members unable to attend a meeting may submit their vote by email in advance, with any further
relevant comments on each grant application to be considered at that meeting.
Insert new heading Decision Making.
Action:
JM/JW to revise the Terms of Reference and re-submit to the Panel at the next
scheduled meeting.
The Panel noted that MB was happy to continue as Chair and JWh as Vice Chair
6
New Applications for Approval (3)
(a)
Kiezebrink UK Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £26,255 - awarded under De Minimus
One and a half full-time jobs to be created.
Conditions of Offer applied: (1) Offer is subject to clarification of De Minimus aid by the
company and all its relevant subsidiaries and (2) we will need to see the Directors loan funds in
the Company bank account
(b)
JSM Home Improvements Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £54,700
Four full-time jobs to be created.
(c)
Precision Refrigeration Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £34,154 - awarded under De Minimus
Six full-time jobs to be created.
Condition of Offer applied: we will need to see the Directors loan funds in the Company bank
account
Applications rules - currently there is ‘inconsistency between the two schemes (GBF and SGS). The
existing GBF guidelines do not state that twelve months must pass before a further application can be
made, whereas for the Small Grant Scheme there is a twelve-month ruling. General discussion took
place.
JM expressed concern that we are seeing several businesses coming forward for repeat grants and with
GBF and SGS being over-subscribed we need to be mindful that we will have to be saying ‘no’. It is
difficult to manage expectations
It was agreed that previous application(s) is a relevant factor to be considered by the Panel when
discussing applications for approval but ultimately this should not affect the Panel decision. In future
previous application(s) will be noted on the documentation to Panel.
Action:
NS to amend the Report Form to have a box indicating previous grant(s) received
7
Small Grant Scheme Update
JM provided update.
The Panel noted the award of Small Grant Scheme grants in the month of January 2019, totalling
£37,267 (Grants Awarded) and £186,334 (Total Project Cost) - See Appendix 1.
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JM reported the Small Grant Scheme continues to perform well. JM reported that six months ago the
programme was behind on spend profile but thanks to the efforts of the Delivery Partners, including BH
and his team, who have done a sterling job in terms of payments, we are now £9k away from our May
target (Claim 14) in terms of spend profile.
Discussion is ongoing with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to extend
the SGS scheme which currently finishes at the end of August 2021; the request will be an additional year
to run to the end of August 2022, and a further £1m. We are hoping for a positive response as MHCLG
see the programme as a ‘high achieving project’ that is delivering exceptional value for money..
Potentially less than £900k unallocated, which will most probably will have gone by the end of the
financial year.
JM brought to the attention changes to the national guidance as of January 2019. Before Christmas,
DEFRA closed the EAFRD and LEADER programmes affecting land-based rural businesses.
On top of this, MHCLG have restricted the type of businesses that can be supported i.e. restaurants,
pubs, which we have historically been able to support. We, and our partners, are presently challenging
this and awaiting clarification and seeing what kind of pressure can be put on MHCLG to get the decision
over turned .
Action:
JM to keep the Panel informed of updates
8
Funding, Updates and Jobs Creation
BH provided update.
Not a huge amount gone out since the last Panel meeting, approx. £50k.
Growing Business Fund - current year GBF allocation is now overspent by £276k. Four or five further
payments could go this month, including Condimentum Limited. If all goes according to plan, could
potentially spend all of the £1m additional allocation, but more likely it will be between £500k and £1m.
With today’s approvals, £2.1m is now committed, but not yet claimed, so will be going into the new
financial year with a high proportion of commitments, and already it seems that next year’s allocation may
need to be increased.
Small Grant Scheme - total spent on SGS is now just over £1.83m (203 grants), with 45 grants
committed, who will claim just over £500k. Just under £900k still available.
Job creation - curiously no further jobs have been confirmed in GBF since the last Panel meeting, so
the total is still 2,114, but with many more to come in due course from incomplete projects. The Small
Grant Scheme (jobs not a requirement) total now stands at 71 so far, up seven from last time.
Updates on approved grants
BH provided updates on the following grants:
Zedbox Limited
Action:
Richard Glinn, Growth Hub Adviser, to contact business to help and assist.
Liquid Digestate Limited - never got to full-spend on the project, therefore claim not complete and
aware the company has now diversified into haulage.
Action:
BH to visit business to discuss incomplete claim and will report back at the next
Panel meeting.
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Stephen Walters & Co. Limited - NS provided update.
Action:
NS to request Richard Glinn, Growth Hub Advisor, to engage with client.
Nwes - MB referred to the recent publicity regarding Nwes. JM reported that the LEP are currently
working closely with Nwes, who have given assurance that the programme will delivered.
9
GBF Applications ‘Pipeline’
NS provided update. Presently there are approx.10-11 cases in the pipeline, amounting to approx. £1m
of potential grant applications, however it is likely that only four/five will go the April meeting.
There are a further eight Expressions of Interest.
JM requested that Finance East and the Growth Hub keep JW informed of all potential pipeline
applications to keep track of potential grant spend.
10
PR and Marketing
JW provided update.
Marketing and Comms Strategy - TMS Media are producing a Marketing and Comms strategy to cover
the whole of the Business Growth Programme and will sit under the main LEP Marketing and Comms
strategy. A report is being produced and will be presented to the New Anglia Marketing Meeting
tomorrow, Thursday, 07 March 2019.
Place Branding - proposal put to the LEP Board and was approved.
Videos - the LEP have commissioned a local media company to produce a short video about Vanilla
Electronics Limited who have been a recipient of GBF.
Growth Hub website - ongoing.
High Growth events - the next event is aimed at Manufacturing sector and is being held on the 26 March
2019 at Banham Broom Hotel.
Growth Hub Comms - Jessica Winlow has now been appointed as a full-time temporary Comms person
employed at the Growth Hub to work specifically on social media promotion.
11
Any Other Business
None.
The meeting closed at 12.15pm.
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, 03 April 2019 |10.00am - 12.30pm at Providence House, 141-145 Princes Street,
Ipswich, IP1 1QJ
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Appendix 1
New Anglia Small Grant Scheme projects approved in January 2019
January 2019 Projects
Approved
Grant
Match
Total
1 External Services Ltd.
15,625
62,501
78,126
2 F.W. Hall & Son Ltd.
3,162
12,646
15,808
3 Advance Engineering (UK) Ltd.
18,480
73,920
92,400
37,267
149,067
186,334
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