Regional Growth Fund – keeping track of the numbers

Just to update on yesterdays blog, the Cabinet Office have released information about three fund that have been through due diligence in the North East.  So there are now seven confirmed grants, the latest being:

• Proctor and Gamble in Newcastle, which has received £5.3 million to create a UK research centre aimed at developing greener and more efficient cleaning products. The company is investing a further £8.4 million into the project and intends to create 53 new jobs.
• Chirton Engineering in North Shields, which has received £75,000 of RGF funding to buy new equipment for the plant. The company is investing a further £175,000 in the project and intends to create 23 new jobs.
• Alnmaritec, a boat design and building company in Blyth, has received £63,000 to buy a 100-tonne marine travel lift, allowing them to expand into the boat repairs market. The company has invested a further £187,000 in the project and hopes to create 15 new jobs.

These are all very welcome jobs for the North East. 

We’ve updated table that analyses the cost per job to the public purse for all seven confirmed funds. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This draws from the information currently in the public domain which is not clear as to whether this relates to direct or indirect jobs created, or both.  It raises a few obvious questions:

• What are the outputs or outcomes for the Proctor and Gamble grant, as its seems fair to assume its not just jobs (at a cost of £100,000 each)? So perhaps there are more medium term economic growth benefits to expect.
• What happened to the minimum grant of £1m, or are the smaller grants the first of a number of installments?
• Also these confirm a lower gearing ratio than anticipated at bid stage.

We’ll keep updating as we find out more. 

Comments

[Atam Verdi]

Many thanks for this tracking service - excellent. It would be useful for us to know whether these are loans or as you put them grants. Likely to be the former and not the latter due to State Aid regs.

The terms of these agreements will be of even more interest - if we get to see them.

We're working on a number of applications including those for ERDF and the State Aid issues are always at the forefront.