LEP supports low value RGF bids
THE Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership is looking to bring together low value project bids for the new £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund so they will meet the £1m threshold set by Ministers.
City region officials will help potential bidders navigate the application process and look for ways to link them to other projects to increase their chances of success.
The offer is also an attempt by the Leeds LEP to ensure that the maximum benefit for the area is secured from the Fund which is worth far less than the budgets of the outgoing regional development agencies.
Anyone can bid for RGF funding although applications must have a private sector interest. The Government has set a £1m minimum threshold for the value of projects that will qualify and a January 21 deadline for the first round of bids.
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Andy Haigh, from the Leeds City Region, said: “The Regional Growth Fund is quite complex and the rules are not that clear. We are trying to offer that help to people who would look to bid into it and also the opportunity to join in with the city region submission.
“Talking together and working this through together we ought to get more out of this than if we do it independently and take a scatter gun approach.
“We feel there is value in putting a joined up case for the city region and the particular needs of the local economy.”
Mr Haigh said it was likely the city region’s approach to the Fund would be made of a number of applications tied together by a narrative explaining the LEP’s overall strategy.
The Regional Growth Fund is part of a range of measures the Government has put forward on regional economic development that include abolishing regional development agencies and replacing them with public-private local enterprise partnerships.
