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Growing Business Fund Grant Panel Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)
Wednesday, 07 July 2021 | 10.00am - 12.30pm
Held via conference call on Microsoft Teams
Present - Panel
Mike Burrows (MB)
Martin Ince (MI)
Paul Stewart (PS)
Daryl Griffiths (DG)
Kathy Atkinson (KA)
In attendance
Allen Hall (AH)
Neil Sargent (NS)
Amanda Castell (AC)
Beverly Davies (BD)
Guy Gibson (GG)
Julie West (JW)
Chris Dashper (CD)
David Dukes (DD)
Jason Middleton (JM)
Rose Joy (RJ)
(Chair)
Martin Ince Communications
Center Parcs
Burnett, Barker Solicitors
Kettle Foods Ltd
Finance East
Finance East
Finance East
Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
New Anglia LEP
1
Welcome and Introductions
MB welcomed members. Meeting quorate. Panel noted David Dukes, Head of Inward Investment,
New Anglia LEP, to join the Panel meeting to provide additional information on Mirus Aircraft Seating
Limited.
2
Not present on telecon call
Apologies received: Jackie Potter, Micropress Limited; Dominic Keen, Britbots and Dr Sumathi
Sundram, S & V Consultants Limited.
3
Declarations of Interest and GDPR
None declared.
4
Meeting Minutes: Panel Meeting held on Wednesday, 05 May 2021
Meeting notes approved with minor amendment as follows:
Page 2, under The Essentials Company, amend to read ‘AC submitted the grant application and NS
presented the application on behalf of AC’.
Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) - MB queried whether anything had been produced internally
at New Anglia LEP to ensure compliance with PSED. JW reported the Growing Business Fund
Terms of Reference, with the new paragraph to reflect inclusion of PSED, will be passed to the LEP
Board for approval. Panel noted a case study will be done on The Essentials Company in due
course. KA reported for information that on the Investment Appraisal Committee they will minute that
they have considered each case and taken this into account.
5
New Applications for Approval (2)
(1) Lockwood Packaging Company - Agreed to support
Local Authority of business - Babergh District Council
£96,300 - GBER
Five and a half new full-time jobs to be created.
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AC expressed, on behalf of Lockwood Packaging Company, thanks to the Panel for the help and
assistance given over the years for the grants previously awarded. Panel noted these grants have
helped them to grow and maintain job security for their staff. In addition, the Lockwood Packaging
Company wished to express their thanks for the patience and understanding shown by the Panel
with the application being submitted today.
AC provided background information on the grant application. Panel noted this is a re-submission,
with a completely revised application to the one discussed, and agreed in principle, in December
2020. Diversification noted. Some concerns expressed and general discussion took place.
(2) Mirus Aircraft Seating Ltd - Agreed to support
Local Authority of business - South Norfolk District Council
£250,000 - De Minimis
13 full time positions to be created
NS provided background information on the grant application and potential issues. The Panel noted
Mirus Aircraft Seating Limited has had two previous applications in June 2015 and August 2018 - NS
outlined details.
A complicated application. Questions and concerns were raised by the Panel, on eligibility for support
and availability of GBF funding.
State Aid regulations - CD provided update on State Aid regulations and the temporary measures
currently in place, as well as giving assurance from the New Anglia LEP perspective that the
application is eligible for support. The project is supportable through the Temporary Framework,
which previously allowed up to €200,000 under the de-minimis arrangements, now replaced by up to
€325,000 ‘Special Drawing Rights’ or approximately £335,000 over 3 years.
GBF funding - CD outlined the GBF funding position. As of last week, the GBF pot was nearly spent,
however, New Anglia LEP have been looking at potential underspend and clawbacks from other
projects and have managed to initially top up the GBF pot up by £288k. In addition, they are currently
looking to make a further top up of £130k from underspends on further projects and will make a
formal recommendation to the New Anglia LEP Board to sub-divide the current pot available for the
Business Resilience & Recovery fund and re-allocate half of it to GBF. In total it is hoped to add
approximately £800k of additional funding into the GBF pot which gives a workable pot going forward
into Autumn. Panel noted that all monies need to be defrayed by the end of the current financial year.
Ideally the fund will need a few reasonable sized bids, that are project ready, so that all the monies
are spent, and claimed, by end of March 2022 as monies cannot be rolled over into next financial
year.
Additional information - DD provided further background information. The project has the
Department of International Trade (DIT) attention and reinforces the New Anglia LEP view that this is
a significant inward investment for the region. Details of the proposed new test sled facility were
outlined, and Panel noted the new facility will be a valuable, and influential, asset to the local
economy and will attract, and draw in, other businesses to establish around it.
Panel noted that Mirus Aircraft Seating Limited have completed both original projects successfully,
and by diversifying, will help recovery and growth and put the company in a good position going
forward.
Lengthy discussion took place. BD made comment from Suffolk County Council point of view. Further
discussion took place.
6
Small Grant Scheme (SGS) | Growth Through Innovation Fund (GTIF) Updates
Small Grant Scheme - JM provided update. SGS has slowed down with fewer, and smaller
applications being received. Only three approvals in June, totaling £10,234 and one project was
withdrawn for just over £3k. See Annexe 1. Currently working with colleagues at MHCLG and BEIS
to get additional money for the SGS and to extend the period of operation. JM to provide update as
and when confirmation received from MHCLG.
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Growth Through Innovation - JM provided update. One application only in June totaling £8,500.
Again, GTI slowed up a bit, but this is not a problem has the scheme has got just under two years to
approve and spend this fund and feel GTI will pick up towards the end of this year/early next year so
not worried at this stage. See Annexe 2.
7
Funding, Updates and Jobs Creation
BD provided update. To date have £7,316 unallocated, including one that came through yesterday.
Panel noted there is quite a bit of underclaim with businesses just claiming for the spend they in
order to meet the end of July Claim deadline. Total now stands at just under £20k available to give
out.
Taking in to account the two approvals made today, the total stands at £328k, which includes the
extra £288k.
CD re-affirmed that the £288k top up is fine but will need to secure LEP Board approval for the
additional monies outlined earlier but cannot anticipate any issues. CD to update GBF Panel after
the July LEP Board.
Business Resilience & Recovery Fund - BD provided update. Currently there is £782k uncommitted
and potentially have one project being withdrawn of £25k which leaves just over £800k to be
committed. CD reported that a project change request to Government would need to be made to sub
divide the funding pot as mentioned earlier.
8
GBF Applications ‘Pipeline’
Finance East have one potential application to bring to the Panel in August. JW reported the Growth
Hub have a pipeline of EOIs but have been managing expectation, pending confirmation of additional
monies for GBF. Once extra monies confirmed JW will request Growth Hub Advisers to re-start the
pipeline and progress applications and hopeful of applications coming through for
September/October.
9
PR and Marketing
JW provided update. Marketing ongoing. LEP and Growth Hub Comms Teams have been working
on promoting other grant schemes and will promote GBF once monies have been confirmed and ‘in
the pot’.
10
Any Other Business
Evaluation of grants - JW provided update. LEP currently undertaking an evaluation of grants given
in the past. This evaluation is being undertaken by Insight Works, who will this week be sending out
a questionnaire survey to 12 businesses across Norfolk and Suffolk, across all grant values and
types of businesses, asking what GBF meant to them. Will share evaluation with the Panel in due
course.
Marketing - AH offered the marketing resources of Finance East should there be a need to promote
GBF going forward and happy to assist with this if necessary.
The meeting closed at 11:17am
Meeting via conference call on Microsoft Teams
Wednesday, 04 August 2021 | 10.00am - 12.30pm
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ANNEXE 1
New Anglia Small Grant Scheme projects
Approved in June 2021
Approved
Grant
Awarded
(£) Grant
Proteome Ltd
2,616
Ethnic Fusion Fine Foods Ltd
2,115
Van Driel Engineering Ltd
5,503
Total SGS projects - June 2021
£10,234
Rejected/Ineligible/Withdrawn
Hoseflex (2) - December 2019 (Withdrawn)
3,288
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ANNEXE 2
New Anglia Growth Through Innovation Projects
Approved in June 2021
June 2021
Approved
Grant
Awarded
(£) Grant
We Love Pets Limited
8,500
Total GTI projects - June 2021
8,500