GBI Grant News...

This table shows the amounts given out under SFIE in previous years across England

	2007		2006
	Amount	Nos of Grants	Amount	Nos of Grants
East of England	£4.1m	5	£4.3m	13
East Midlands	£4.7m	16	£3m	23
London	£0.66m	5	£1.9m	5
North East	£15.7m	76	£12.7m	97
North West	£10.3m	46	£18.5m	39
South East	£2.5m	4	£2m	3
South West	£2.7m	11	£4.2m	3
West Mids	£15m	40	£10.9m	32
Y&H	£6m	42	£8m	45
Total	£61.7m	245	£65.9m	294
The data above is reflective of published BERR grant data on the SFIE scheme and relates to ALL offers made to successful applicants in England in Tier 1 & Tier 2 regions. On average over the past 3 years 90% of all offers have been over £75K with the largest being £6.8m to a large multinational manufacturer. The scheme is aimed at English SME's who operate in the manufacturing and/or added value sectors.  SFIE has just been re-launched as Grant for Business Investment In this month BERR have announced that the Selective Finance for Investment (SFIE) grant scheme has been re-launched and re-branded as ‘Grant for Business Investment’. The application procedure and guidelines for the scheme are virtually identical as the old SFIE scheme however with a few major changes influencing future applications. UK Grants Limited who are national grant experts on SFIE/GBI encourage all future applicants to contact a grant specialist to ensure they understand the new changes before proceeding to apply for GBI grant finance. The guidelines are now 110 pages long and can be confusing to someone who is not involved in GBI grant funding on an ongoing basis.   10/2008  100% of England becomes grant aided for SMEs In this month the last 2 Regional Development Agencies joined the other 7 to make 100% of England now grant aided under the GBI scheme. Any area that is not grant Tier 2 status by Europe is now automatically a Tier 3 area. UK Grants Limited once again welcomed this decision to open up the entire country to grant aid under Tier 3 status. England is now a level playing field for SMEs which means more companies than ever can apply for GBI grant finance. The decision in April 2007 by the other RDAs has proved to be very fruitful for companies who historically were not in a grant area, with some parts of the country seeing 50%+ of new grant applications coming from these new Tier 3 areas. Never before has the country been more open to assisting business with grant aid. 10/2008  Grant Rates for SMEs have just gone up! As well as ALL of England now being grant aided under the new GBI grant scheme, the government (BERR) have announced that the old grant intervention rates for Tier 3 areas have gone up in an attempt to assist business more, given the current economic climate. Whereas the old rates were 7.5% and 15% depending on company size, they have now increased to 10% and 20%. This means SMEs can now apply for more under the scheme than ever before. Tier 2 limits still remain and are applicable to companies of any size who are located within one of these regions. 10/2008 Extra incentives for start ups and female entrepreneurs to apply for GBI Recent changes within the guidelines has meant that the government are now actively encouraging and assisting new business ventures better than ever. Under the GBI scheme if you are a young business (less than 5 years old), start up or newly created female entrepreneur then many of your costs associated with running a new business can now be included as eligible project costs. Including…. Short term rentals, utility costs, administration, depreciation and child care costs where applicable. This is on top of capital equipment purchase costs. Depending on location and age of the business then up to 35% of these costs could be grant aided under GBI. Though typical grant rates will be in the region of 15%-25%. 10/2008