3,500 jobs are expected to result from £50m investment by LEP

THE Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is marking the milestone of supporting 350 businesses to grow that plan to create 3,500 jobs.

Its grants and loans programmes have allocated more than £50m to businesses and projects across the 10 local authorities which make up the city region.

Roger Marsh, chairman of the LEP, said: “We are delighted that our funding programmes are having such a positive impact, helping businesses to unlock their potential and create new, good quality jobs for local people.”

More than three-quarters of all grants from the LEP have gone to manufacturing businesses, with the funding being used for capital investment in machinery, plant and land with the overall aim of enabling businesses to take on employees and apprentices.

“I’m especially pleased about the support we’ve given to the region’s manufacturers,” added Mr Marsh. “Enabling growth in this sector is vital if we are to achieve our ambition of enabling the City Region to become a net contributor to the public purse, helping to rebalance national economy and deliver sustained good growth that provides opportunities for all.

“As a result of this LEP investment, a number of manufacturers have been able to explore new markets at home and overseas and purchase new, innovative technology to expand their product offering.”

Manufacturing business Craftsman Tools, based in Otley, is one of the manufacturing companies that has grown as a result of LEP support. The company manufactures high quality tool holders to clients across the world. They successfully applied for a grant from the LEP to invest in machinery that would help them expand production, develop innovative new products and processes and train their growing cohort of apprentices.

Robert Johnson, managing director of Craftsman Tools, said: “The LEP grant enabled us to invest in new machinery, freeing up some of our older machines to be used in our apprenticeship training programme and enabling us to develop new processes to boost our productivity and innovation.

“We employ 11 apprentices who are learning the trade from scratch and having the equipment for the young apprentices helps us provide the bespoke training that is essential if we are to ensure we have the right skills in future years.”