Enterprise hub aims to give local businesses a boost

European funding has enabled not-for-profit company, Participate Projects, to launch a Business Enterprise Hub in a West Yorkshire town centre.
The hub, established under the brand “Made in Keighley”, is in a former mobile phone store in the Airedale Shopping Centre, Keighley.
A team of enterprise coaches are on hand to offer 12 hours of free support to business owners in the Keighley area.
They are qualified to help these owners identify weaknesses in their companies then work out how to overcome these issues.
Jon Davis, CLLD enterprise hub co-ordinator at Shipley-based Participate Projects, said the enterprise hub has been made possible thanks to backing from European Structural and Investment Funds. (ESIF)
Keighley has been successful in securing £2.4m of ESIF, managed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department of Works and Pensions.
The funding for Keighley includes £1.4m from the European Regional Development Fund and £1m from the European Social Fund amounting to 50% of the total programme value of £4.8m.
To achieve the total value of the programme, the funding will be matched by delivery partners, which include Bradford Council.
Davis added: “We’re one of the first face-to-face offerings of this kind which has been set up in Keighley for some time. A lot of the other offerings are being done online at the moment.
“We’ve just opened up this week, though we’ll be having a launch with Keighley’s MP in three or four weeks. We are well aligned with the Levelling Up agenda.”