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Growing Business Fund Grant Panel Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)
Wednesday, 04 March 2020 | 10.00am - 12.30pm
Suffolk Suite, Center Parcs, Elvedon Forest, Brandon, Suffolk, IP27 0YZ.
Present - Panel:
Mike Burrows (MB)
Dr Sumathi Sundram (SS)
Martin Ince (MI)
Daryl Griffiths (DG)
Dominic Keen (DK)
In Attendance:
Julie West (JW)
Rose Joy (RJ)
Barry Henson (BH)
Vimmi Hayes (VH)
Amanda Castell (AC)
Neil Sargent (NS)
In observation:
Shan Lloyd (SL)
Beth Hutch (BH)
Kate Colchester (KC)
Chair
S&V Consultants Ltd
Martin Ince Communications
Burnett Barker Solicitors
Britbots
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council
Finance East
Finance East
BEIS
BEIS
New Anglia Growth Hub
Actions outstanding | Updates from the meeting: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Growing Business Fund Panel Membership - JW provided update.
The LEP are currently looking to recruit a new LEP Board member and, once in place, will co-opt the new
LEP Board member onto the Growing Business Fund Panel.
The Panel expressed their appreciation and thanks to Max Applin for his time on the Panel. With regards
to his replacement, it was felt that the Panel can manage with the membership as it stands, bearing in
mind the potential end date of the GBF scheme; however, if a problem with membership attendance
arises, then we will recruit another Panel member.
Smartsheet - BH provided update.
Currently in discussion with New Anglia LEP to get the historic, present and future grant data, onto the
LEP’s CRM system and are progressing fields and structure to accommodate this. Priority will be to
upload the new Growth Through Innovation Fund, and then input the historic grant data, going back to
2012. This will be a huge task to accomplish but will considerably improve reporting capabilities going
forward.
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Welcome and Introductions
MB welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions made round the table.
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Apologies received
Chris Daspher, New Anglia LEP; Jason Middleton, New Anglia LEP; Roberta Willner, Norfolk County
Council; Paul Stewart, Center Parcs; Jeanette Wheeler, Birketts,; Jackie Potter, Micropress and Stuart
Ager, Finance East.
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Declarations of Interest and GDPR
Declarations of Interest - No Declarations of Interest declared.
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Meeting Minutes: Panel Meeting held on Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Minutes confirmed with no amendment.
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New Applications for Approval (4)
a) Gold Star Metal Traders Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £180,000
Nine full-time positions to be created.
Note. The Company has had a previous GBF grant, which has been satisfactorily completed.
(b) Dance and Dean Limited - Agreed to support
Approved grant - £60,000
Three full-time positions to be created.
General discussion took place on the reliance, and dependency, of one main contractor’s work, for
business growth but assurance given that the company also undertakes general commercial and
domestic building jobs, as well as being a ‘preferred supplier’ for their main contractor.
(c) Dale Sheet Metals Limited - Agreed to support
Approved Grant: £154,400
Eight full time positions to be created.
(d) Crafted Media Limited - Agreed to support.
Approved Grant: £35,500
Two full-time positions to be created.
Note: The company has had GBF and SGS grants previously; both of which have been
satisfactorily completed.
BH also made the observation that the second grant was an Assisted Area award and the assets
purchased should be retained in an Assisted Area for three years and the new premises proposed in this
application are not in an Assisted Area. However, with depreciation of the assets it was felt that this may
not be an issue in this case.
The Panel made comment that this company is a world class business and a good example of supply
chain. It was good to have them in ‘our patch’.
BH made the general observation that in some of the expenditure breakdowns in today’s applications
there are costs which may be ‘revenue’ items, and having re-visited the State Aid criteria, these elements
may not be eligible for support under GBER.
Recommendation : BH to have discussions with the companies concerned to refine the
expenditure categories as necessary. This may slightly reduce the grant values.
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Small Grant Scheme (SGS) Update
See attached Annexe 1 (November 2019, December 2019 and January 2020). BH provided update.
It was noted that Image Displays & Graphics Limited (December 2019) has already been claimed and
paid out which shows the system is working well.
The overall programme total is 280 grants paid, total paid out is £2.578m, which leaves £644k to defray
until the end of August 2021, comprising of just over £420k approved but not yet claimed grants and
£218k not yet committed.
Seven grants were approved in February 2020.
The Small Grant Scheme remains well ahead of profile. It was noted that the LEP has restricted multiple
bids and priority will now be given to first time applicants.
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Jobs total stands at 135.5 jobs (jobs not a requirement) with more to come from live projects maturing.
Project Change Request - the extension is still pending approval by Ministry of Housing, Communities
and Local Government (MHCLG). The Panel commented that the SGS is a vital scheme for Norfolk and
Suffolk and needs to be continued.
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Funding, Updates and Jobs Creation
Updates - BH updated the Panel on the following:
Omega Ingredients Ltd - unfortunately the grant project has not proceeded as planned, and therefore
are in discussions with the company about revising the profile of expenditure.
BH updated the Panel on the overall funding position and job creation.
Growing Business Fund - actual spend this financial year now stands at £2,533m, with two more
potential payments to be made which would take the total to £2.65m, out of the initial allocation of
£2.79m. We are now close to full spend, and with the four grants approved today, we have £429,900 to
add to the committed figures to carry into the new financial year. The allocation for 2020-2021 is again
£2.79m, therefore, we will have approx. £465k committed.
Actual confirmed jobs stand at 2323 which is 13 more than last month. This is a significant number of
jobs created and with 70 or so GBF projects still live, there will be more jobs to come through in due
course.
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GBF Applications ‘Pipeline
NS/AC reported that there is a good pipeline of applications coming through at various stages.
Hopeful of 3/4 applications being presented to the April Growing Business Fund Panel Meeting.
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PR and Marketing
JW provided update.
Printed material - gone to print and JW will being literature for distribution to the GBF Panel members as
and when available.
Videos - currently being edited at the Growth Hub and hopeful will be out by the end of the month.
Case studies - these are written and will get into the press and social media in due course.
The Growth Hub is now engaging with local press/media bodies to engender good working relationships
going forward.
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Any Other Business
West Suffolk - Growth Hub Adviser covering West Suffolk area is Chris Sharman.
JW informed the Panel that Richard Glinn, who was previously a Senior Business Growth Adviser at the
Growth Hub, has now returned as Growth Hub Manager replacing Nigel Best.
The meeting closed at 11.30am.
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, 01 April 2020 |10.00am - 12.30pm
BIrketts, Kingfisher House, 1 Gilders Way, Norwich NR3 1UB
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Annexe 1
New Anglia Small Grant Scheme projects approved in:
November 2019 | December 2019 | January 2020
November 2019
Approved
Grant
Awarded (£)
Re Form Sports Fitness Ltd
13,078
David Holliday Limited
2,820
Creative Image Management Ltd.
10,260
Big House Holiday Rentals Ltd.
4,800
H. Smith & Sons (Honingham) Limited
8,133
Total
39,091
December 2019
Approved
Grant
Awarded (£)
F.W. Frost (Engineers) Ltd.
15,097
Image Display & Graphics Ltd
12,332
DLH Autorecyclers Limited (2)
6,670
J&A Garner - Godwick Hall
25,000
Cross Media Print and Digital Solutions Ltd.
25,000
Thompson Packaging Limited
8,939
DaRo Fibre Products Ltd
8,077
Hoseflex Ltd.
3,288
Total
104,403
January 2020
Approved
Grant
Awarded (£)
Tills Innovation Limited
2,120
Suffolk Yoga
14,943
Distinct Marketing Ltd
2,735
The Suffolk Distillery Ltd
7,261
Kiki Ltd
22,962
Total
50,021