Page 1 of 5
Growing Business Fund Grant Panel Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)
Wednesday, 01 May 2019 | 10.00am - 12.30pm
Centrum (Meeting Room G01 & G02), Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UG
Present - Panel:
Mike Burrows (MB)
Martin Ince (MI)
Paul Stewart (PS)
Dominic Keen (DK)
Daryl Griffiths (DG)
Dr Sumathi Sundram ISS)
Max Applin (MA)
In Attendance:
Jason Middleton (JM)
Julie West (JW)
Rose Joy (RJ)
Barry Henson (BH)
Vimmi Hayes (VH
David Dukes (DD)
Amanda Castell (AC)
Hayley Johnson (HJ)
Morgan Potter (MP)
(Chair)
Martin Ince Communications
Center Parcs
Britbots
Burnett Barker Solicitors
S&V Consultants Ltd
Max Applin Consulting
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council
Norfolk County Council
Finance East
Finance East
New Anglia Growth Hub
Actions carried forward
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
Panel Members - Panel members to be listed on the Agenda for ease of reference going forward
Actions outstanding from the meeting: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Update on Condimentum Limited - JW provided update.
JW has spoken to Condimentum Limited regarding TUPE from Colmans to Condimentum Limited and will
report back progress to the next meeting on this issue.
1
Welcome and Introduction
MB welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2
Apologies received
Jeanette Wheeler, Birketts; Jackie Potter, Micro Press Limited; Neil Sargent, Finance East; Stuart Ager,
Finance East and Chris Dashper, New Anglia LEP
3
Declarations of Interest and GDPR
Declarations of Interest - No Declarations of Interest declared.
Page 2 of 5
4
Meeting Minutes: Panel Meeting held on Wednesday, 03 May 2019
Minutes confirmed with no amendment.
5
Terms of Reference
Terms of Reference revised in line with comments from previous meeting. To be presented at the next
Investment Appraisal Committee for LEP sign off.
6
New Applications for Approval
a) Goldwell Manufacturing Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £40,000
Two full-time positions to be created.
Conditions of Offer applied: We will need to see Directors loan funds in the Company bank
account.
Note: This is an assisted area award (Article 14)
(b) Belle Coachworks Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £36,000
Five full-time positions to be created and an apprentice.
Note: This is an assisted area award (Article 14)
(c) HBD Europe Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £52,388 - awarded under De Minimus
Six full-time positions to be created.
General discussion took place on eligibility of property improvement on a leasehold property.
Action; Review Guidance for Applicants and amend to include paragraph on
Leasehold Property
A further two applications were considered and declined by the Panel.
7
Application to be ratified (1)
(a) Portable Space Limited - Agreed to support
Approved grant - £78,378 (amended grant value from £95,581)
Five full-time positions to be created.
8
Small Grant Scheme Update
JM provided update.
The Panel noted the award of Small Grant Scheme grants in the month of March 2019, totalling
£115,532k (Grants Awarded) - See Appendix 1.
JM reported the Small Grant Scheme continues to ‘storm ahead’ with approx. £700k left of grant value
unallocated and at the current rate of approval will potentially run out by the end of the calendar year.
JM is currently in discussion with MHCLG for further funds and a potential extension to the scheme to
August 2021.
New Anglia Innovation, Research & Development Grant Scheme - JM reported the grant application
has been accepted at the outline stage and have now received a letter inviting us to submit a full
application.
Anticipate submitted full application by end of June. Have asked for £2million, to run from September
2019 - August 2022, with a 50% intervention rate. Grant scheme to follow the same process as the
current Small Grant Scheme. The Innovation, Research & Development scheme may have a limited
impact the Small Grant Scheme, as there may be some cross-over. Once the scheme is up and running,
will have the opportunity to go back to MHCLG and ask for additional funding.
The panel noted that standard ERDF sector eligibility restrictions will apply.
Page 3 of 5
9
Funding, Updates and Jobs Creation
BH provided update.
Growing Business Fund (GBF) - a further eight jobs confirmed in GBF, giving a total of 2127 jobs.
Paid out £145k in April - had carried forward grants and those approved today have paid out or
committed £1.94million in current financial year, therefore two-thirds of the allocation. LEP fully aware of
the pressure again this year and may consider a further allocation of funds later this year.
Small Grant Scheme (SGS) - programme total thus far is now 221 payments, giving a grant value of just
over £2million, so we are now four months ahead of target profile
Another twelve jobs have been created, so now standing at 97 jobs (jobs not a requirement) and closing
in on the 100
th
new job. We have also fully achieved the target for new products and services for the
whole six-year period of the programme.
Promotion of grants - going forward will be pro-actively approaching and engaging with those
businesses identified as having potential to grow which hopefully in turn will impact on the number of GBF
applications coming forward.
Updates on approved grants - BH provided updates on the following grants:
FreshAsia - BH and team are in regular contact with FreshAsia and BH will provide an up-date at the
next meeting.
Stephen Walters Limited - JM has spoken with Richard Glinn, Growth Hub Adviser, who has engaged
with the client and as of yesterday, Tuesday, 30 April 20219, a proposal received.
Action: JM/JW/BH to have discussion to see if the proposal from Stephen Walters Limited is
acceptable and will report back at the next meeting.
Nwes - JM reported that there was nothing further to report on Nwes. Regular meetings with Nwes are
being held.
9
GBF Applications ‘Pipeline
AC and HJ provided update.
Presently there are six cases in the pipeline at various stages, however it is likely that only three will go to
the June meeting. General discussion took place on pipeline and application submission.
JW reported that there were five Expressions of Interest.
10
PR and Marketing
JW provided update.
High Growth Programme - Two successful events have taken place (Manufacturing and Digital
Technology), with a further event scheduled for Tuesday, 07 May 2019, at Dunston Hall, focussing on the
Financial sector.
Growth Hub website - improvement is ongoing
Promotional material - will be going out to tender shortly for a range of printed material and display
equipment covering the whole of the Business Growth Programme.
A press release is being prepared
Small Grant Scheme Bulletin - a weekly internal newsletter is produced by Alan Herbert, Due Diligence
Officer, highlighting issues arising from due diligence or queries raised by Growth Hub Advisers. Going
forward to include Growing Business Fund and Agri-Tech issues/queries.
Page 4 of 5
Action: Growing Business Fund Panel members to be added to the distribution list for the
newsletter.
In time, a further developed newsletter will be produced.
11
Application assessment/process - VH recognised that GBF is a discretionary grant so that scoring may
not be the answer but queried whether some sort of checklist for assessing applications might be
introduced so that the Panel are able to give consistent responses through all involved in the application
process and also guide conversations at GBF meetings.
Applications to Panel - Finance East to send applications in Word format going forward, to make it
easier to look for key words within the application forms.
Action: JW/Finance East to have a meeting to clarify and tighten up ‘grey areas’
Invest East - DD provided brief update on the Invest East programme. Pleased to report that the
programme is progressing well in its first cohort and can foresee a handful of these companies, once
investment is in place, coming forward as potential applications to GBF Panel.
Action: Panel members to be listed on the Agenda for ease of reference going
forward.
Guidance for applicants - document currently being revised and will be circulated to Panel for
information in due course.
The meeting closed at 12.30pm
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, 05 June 2019 |10.00am - 12.30pm
Providence House, 141-145 Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1QJ
Page 5 of 5
Appendix 1
New Anglia Small Grant Scheme projects approved in March 2019
No
Applicant
Grant
awarded (£)
1
Timber Services Ltd
25,000
2
Ansible Motion Ltd
9,794
3
E G Grounds Care Ltd
8,400
4
RD & M Gregg Ltd
19,627
5
Gurney Environmental Ltd*
12,784
6
Anglia Computer Solutions Business Ltd
4,604
7
The Engineers Store EA Ltd
5,773
8
I-Level Ltd
9,791
9
Fenwick & Tilbrook
4,004
10
Cambridge Rapid Components Ltd
15,755
115,532
*Gurney Environmental Ltd has already withdrawn their grant offer