£400m fund will support northern firms
THE ANNOUNCEMENT WAS MADE AT THE SECOND ANNUAL UK NORTHERN POWERHOUSE CONFERENCE & EXPO AT MANCHESTER CENTRAL
A £400m investment fund is aiming to boost the region’s economy and help businesses realise their growth potential.
Aimed at SMEs, the £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) was launched by The British Business Bank at the UK Northern Powerhouse Conference and Expo in Manchester.
The new fund will provide smaller businesses with increased choice of funding and producing greater levels of investment across the Northern Powerhouse region.
Working with 10 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), combined authorities and Growth Hubs, as well as local accountants, fund managers and banks, the fund will provide a mixture of debt and equity capital to northernbased SMEs at all stages of their development.
NPIF will provide funding to fund managers who will offer microfinance (£25,000 - £100,000), business loans (£100,000 £750,000) and equity finance up to £2m).
Initially announced in November 2015, NPIF combines capital allocated to the 10 LEPs in the North West, Yorkshire and Humber and the Tees Valley by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and an additional loan from British Business Finance Limited, a British Business Bank group company.
This comes just weeks after the launch of the Industrial Strategy Green Paper.
Keith Morgan, CEO at British Business Bank, said: “The region has enormous untapped economic potential that can be realised by improved funding options and opportunities. The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund represents a co-ordinated policy approach to help realise this potential across the North.” Andrew Percy, Northern Powerhouse Minister, said: “Our efforts to build the Northern Powerhouse are delivering real results for local people, with over one million businesses involved, foreign direct investment up by a quarter and 187,000 jobs created in the past year alone. “This dedicated £400m will help us go even further, supporting smaller businesses across the region to reach their full potential.”
The region has enormous untapped economic potential Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank