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FOR GRA'S EXPERT CONSIDERATION OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF YOUR PROJECT ATTRACTING GRANT AID OR OTHER FUNDING LET
US HAVE DETAILS USING THE FORM BELOW.
GRA
QUESTIONAIRE
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GRA
- UK Company Grants Resource - Advertising by Google
Capital
Expenditure Projects
Financial assistance towards large capital investment
projects is offered in England in certain qualifying areas
by Grant for Business Investment
(GBI).
GBI (formerly known as SFI, is a discretionary grant designed for businesses
that are looking to invest in an Assisted Area (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier
3) but need financial help to go ahead. Most manufacturing businesses
are eligible to apply, as are business in service industries that supply
a national rather than local market. Applicants can be any size of company,
a partnership or sole trader. Assistance is provided to:
— Launch a new business
— Expand/modernise/reorganise an existing business
— Upgrade a business, introducing technological or other innovatory
improvements
— Set up research and development facilities
— Or enable businesses to take the next step from development to production
All projects must meet the GBI scheme criteria and in each case the
amount and terms of assistance will be negotiated as the minimum necessary
for the proposed project to go ahead. There is also a minimum threshold
for applications of a £10,000 grant.
Levels of support can be significant and depend on the quality of the
project and its impact on productivity and skills. Successful businesses
typically receive around 10% - 20% of a project’s total eligible
capital expenditure, but support can vary widely either side of these
figures. Higher aid ceilings might possibly be available for small to
medium sized businesses (under 250 employees worldwide).
Grants are normally payable in instalments on reaching fixed capital
expenditure and job targets, which are set out in a formal offer of support.
These targets are agreed during appraisal of the application
and are usually arranged to coincide with the project’s anticipated
progress.
Previous Grant Schemes: Automatic grants
such as RDG which ceased in 1988 no longer exist; GBI replaces SFI
which itself replaced RSA
on 1st January 2000, but RSA continues to be the name of the scheme
in Wales (as a component of SIF) and in Scotland.
ALL grants are discretionary and require an applicant
to prove a genuine need, and that a project for which funding is sought
will create and/or safeguard jobs. A grant cannot be claimed as a right
- it has to be the result of an application for aid.
The discretionary nature of the grant regimes and strict
criteria by which eligibility is determined suggests that you should speak
first with GRA or other professionals rather than to the grant authority
or other government body to avoid giving information prematurely which
could then prejudice your potential case when final application submissions
are reviewed during the formal appraisal process. Taxpayers' money is
not given away lightly.
In summary the available Capital Expenditure grants for the English Regions
are:
SFI
ALL
Comanies |
Available for capital expenditure projects undertaken
by ALL sized companies taking
place within the UK in Tier 1 and Tier 2 Areas, and which will create
and/or safeguard jobs.
Grants of 10% - 20% of a project’s total eligible capital
expenditure, from £10K upwards, and running
into £Millions are possible since there is no maximum stipulated
by the scheme.
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SFI
SME's
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Available for capital expenditure projects undertaken
by small and medium sized companies within the English Regions,
in Tier 3 areas.
Small companies that employ less than 50 people
can apply for up to 15% of the project costs as an SFI grant.
Medium
companies that employ between 50 and 249 people can apply for up
to 7.5% of the projects costs as an SFI grant. |
See Wales and Scotland
for details on RSA and Small Company Project schemes for those areas.
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News of UK Interest (1)
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IN THE NEWS
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GRANT
for
BUSINESS
INVESTMENT
From1st October 2008 Grant
for Business Investment (GBI) is the new name for Selective
Finance for Investment (SFI) launched as part of the newly titled
portfolio of 'Solutions for Business' by the Department for Business
in England (BIS). GBI replaces SFI, which
in 2004 itself replaced both RSA and the EGS grant schemes in the
Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 areas of England. This followed a long
period of review of the RSA and EGS effect on Investment, and SFI
was structured so as to provide funding assistance and greater incentives
to modernise and increase productivity.
Regional Selective Assistance
Single Investment Fund
The existing schemes
remain in place in Wales within the Single Investment Fund (SIF) scheme,
and in Scotland continues under the RSA name
- essentially though application assessment now takes on board the
productivity and job skill values of the English GBI scheme.
ASK GRA for HELP
Interested companies
intending to seek grants in the near future to support their investment
intentions should approach us at GRA directly so that an individual
FREE assessment of the additional conditions which will be applied to
grant applications from now on, can be assessed against the applicant's
individual potential case for grant. Initially this should be done
by site registration,
and then completion of an ask GRA
form.
All such enquiries will be considered with
complete client confidentiality as is usual in all dealings with GRA.
 .
REPORT PUTS RSA GRANTS
UNDER CRITICAL REVIEW
The findings of a report published June
17th, 2003 showing that grants do little to raise productivity levels,
and were biased towards manufacturing with a risk of creating a grant
culture, and over-dependency, continues to be a factor in the willingness
or otherwise for UK Government and their Regional Development Agencies
to be reluctant to readily provide grant assistance.
The National Audit Office report placed a question mark over the value of regional
intervention, a key strategy over the past 30 years for reducing economic disparities
across the UK.
THE ANSWER IF SEEKING GRANT AID IS TO USE GRA
To be sure to overcome all objections is
to use professional help in the case preparation and presentation which
bring to bear the skills which GRA has honed to the point of
never losing a case in over 18 years.
RSA
Revised in Scotland
Iain Gray, launching a revised RSA
scheme for Scotland last week, said that a more open and accessible Regional
Selective Assistance scheme should encourage more Scottish companies and
entrepreneurs to take advantage of the grants available - RSA was now
open to all sizes of company, and replaces the Invest for Growth scheme
for small companies seeking aid of under £50K.
 10.03.10 © GRA
2003-2010
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