A NEW £4m business grant fund is now available to businesses in North and East Yorkshire.

It follows a successful Regional Growth Fund (RGF) bid led by Clive Owen LLP and the BE Group.

The fund will build upon the success achieved last year with a scheme administered by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which ended on March 31.

Clive Owen advised on a large number of the applications in that scheme and Neville Baldry, a partner in the Darlington office, had the idea to enter a bid to Round 6 of the Regional Growth Fund to continue the availability of grant support to businesses in the region.

He teamed up with Simon Allen of the BE Group, which administers the successful Let’s Grow North East grant scheme and others.

They were backed by the LEP, which represents the nine local authorities within the area and, despite tough competition succeeded in securing £4m for the North and East Yorkshire region.

The scheme – Let's Grow North and East Yorkshire – will be launched at a breakfast event at York’s Marriott Hotel in Tadcaster Road on Friday, June 19.

Grants of up to between 10 and 20 per cent of capital expenditure, or up to 25 per cent of research and development and training costs can be awarded to eligible businesses creating or safeguarding new and sustainable jobs within the York, North Yorkshire, and East Riding area. The minimum level of grant is £25,000.

Mr Baldry said: "This is great news for North Yorkshire as, historically, this region has been out of scope for grant funding opportunities. Growing businesses in Hambleton and Richmond have often missed out on funding opportunities, while their close neighbours in Durham and the Tees Valley have always benefitted from grant support.

"Last year’s LEP scheme demonstrated that there’s no shortage of ambitious businesses in North Yorkshire, and the new scheme will help those businesses who want to expand, but just need that extra support to do so."

Simon Allen, senior project manager at BE Group with responsibility for the new scheme, said: "We’ve known Neville and his team for some time through our successful Let’s Grow North East scheme, so we were delighted when approached to work with them on a scheme for North & East Yorkshire.

"Having established Let’s Grow as a brand within the North East, it seemed a logical decision to adopt this name for our scheme."

Mr Baldry and his team have extensive experience of grant and state aid matters, having been involved with over £140m of RGF funding since 2011.

o Clive Owen LLP is running an extra event on grants for businesses in the North East at their Darlington office on June 23, where the theme will be ‘What makes a good grant application?’

For details an to book contact Margaret Gill on 01325 349700.