Finance experts have secured more than £25m worth of grants

August 11th 2017

Finance experts have secured more than £25m worth of grants boosting private sector growth and securing hundreds of jobs in the North.

Clive Owen & Co's grants team is celebrating a record start to 2017, bringing £180m to the total amount of grants accessed in the past five years.

The latest windfall is likely to unlock about £300m of private sector investment, providing sustainable job opportunities for more than 1,200 people.

Clive Owen & Co has secured the awards from a variety of grant programmes including the Tees Valley capital grant scheme, Let's Grow North East, Leeds City Region's Business Growth Programme, as well as various national schemes.

The grants advisory services partner Neville Baldry said: "We are delighted to have had such a strong start to the year. Grant funding continues to play a vital role in the current economic environment, de-risking investments and therefore giving businesses the confidence to press ahead with plans despite the uncertain market conditions following Brexit and the recent general election result."

Manager in the grants advisory team Carl Wright added: "Grant funding is currently widely available across the Tees Valley and Yorkshire and we have worked on applications from a wide variety of economic sectors, not just the manufacturers that have historically been the biggest beneficiaries.

"Political uncertainty could mean that funding opportunities diminish in the future so I would encourage businesses considering expansion plans to act quickly."

As well as offering application support to their clients across the country, Clive Owen LLP also works with specialist business support organisation BE Group to administer the Let's Grow North and East Yorkshire grant scheme and have secured a £2m extension to this fund from the regions Local Enterprise Partnership, taking the programme through to June 2018.

The previous round of funding saw more than 20 businesses benefit from support ranging from £25k to £600k, resulting in the creation or safeguarding of 636 jobs and generating private sector investment of over £25m.

Neville said: "It's great to see that the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding LEP has recognised the success of the Let's Grow scheme to date and have provided the funding needed to extend the scheme, allowing us to support business growth across the region for a further year."