The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has given further details of arrangements for the Regional Growth Fund.
Announced on 29 June by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the £1 billion Regional Growth Fund is intended to support the areas and communities most at risk of being affected by public spending cuts.
The Fund is currently scheduled to operate from 2011 to 2013 and will help the areas most dependent on public sector employment as the country makes the transition to private sector-led growth and prosperity, including the dismantling of the regional development agencies and establishment of local enterprise partnerships.
Both private bodies and public-private partnerships will be able to bid for RGF funding for projects that offer significant potential for sustainable economic growth, can create new private sector employment, and will bring in private investment.
The Government is putting in place reforms to help private sector enterprise thrive in areas of greater need. Tackling the budget deficit by reducing public spending, whilst prioritising the vital services people rely on by supporting business investment and entrepreneurship in areas which have become overly reliant on public sector employment, the aim is to create jobs and stimulate growth in a balanced way across the country.
Local enterprise partnerships will see business and local authorities come together and set out their priorities for their area, rather than being told what is best for them. The Regional Growth Fund will be important in providing access to the investment needed to make those priorities happen.
The Government is seeking views on how the Regional Growth Fund should work. What kind of activities should be supported? How should particular schemes be judged to determine eligibility for support? Is this something you think should continue in the future?
A series of consultation questions have been posed which include:
Q. Are there benefits to be had from allocating different elements of the Fund in different ways?
Q. What type of activities, that promote the objectives outlined above, should the Fund support and how should the Fund be best designed to facilitate this?
Q. Do you think a two-stage bidding process should be operated?
Q. Should a Regional Growth Fund become a long-term means of funding activity that promotes growth?
Further details of the consultation and how to contribute are available on the BIS website: http://www.bis.gov.uk/Consultations/regional-growth-fund-consultation?cat=open
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