Birmingham LEP launches new online advice portal
A COMPREHENSIVE online portal detailing hundreds of business support programmes and access to finance schemes in the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership area has been launched.
The Central Business Portal, accessed via www.gbslep.com, offers companies and organisations in the LEP area a single resource for finding a range of business support services provided at a local, regional and national level as well as sources of finance to encourage expansion, growth and diversification.
The database, which includes schemes run in the Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Redditch, Solihull, Tamworth and Wyre Forest local authority areas, is an important resource and a facility that has been lacking since the demise of Business Link West Midlands last year.
Additionally, the one-stop-shop service also provides information about business opportunities, advice and the appropriate contact details for companies looking to relocate or set up operations in the LEP area. This is a role previously within the remit of regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.
Paul Heaven, GBS LEP board director with responsibility for access to finance, said the new portal would be vital for improving economic development within the area.
“Early on when we began talking as a LEP to businesses about what support we could provide for them to help them to grow, the message came back loud and clear that changes in the way business support was delivered on a local and national level over the last few years had led to a gap in the provision of signposting to business support and sources of finance,” he said.
“Fixing this, we were told, should be a LEP priority. While it is not the job of the LEP to provide all of the support itself, it is vital we do what we can to pull the information together and make it as easy as possible to find the source of support of finance that best meet the needs of the businesses in our region.
“There are a number of high quality business support and access to finance programmes running in the GBS LEP area, as well as a wide range of national initiatives.”
The portal is designed to make it much easier for businesses to get hold of the information they need and find out which funds are suitable and available to them.
