Thriving Economy

Denham: £50m to Help Councils With Economic Recovery

An extra £50 million is being given to councils to help them make big strides toward economic recovery in their local area, announced Communities Secretary John Denham today.

The funding is being allocated to all areas of the country from the Local Authority Business Growth Incentives (LABGI) scheme that rewards councils which successfully promote local growth.

John Denham is clear that vital public sector support at this time can lessen the impact for struggling families and businesses. He wants to see councils use this grant to help small and new businesses in hard hit areas who often need extra support to get through the tougher times so they can hit the ground running as economic growth picks up.

Among the recipients North East Lincolnshire Council will get will get over £160,000 more. Already they have used it to help small businesses and local employers in Grimsby bounce back from the recession with business and renovation grants and a bus service to reach the local business park.

Bristol will get over £400,000 and has already used £1m to create an apprenticeship scheme with the university, deliver Real Help Now Government schemes and a jobs bus. LABGI has helped new businesses through the Yeovil Information Centre which provides affordable office space. In Aylesbury Vale, it funded free parking to encourage shoppers to support local business.

Last July, the scheme was re-launched with a similar £50m grant. Today’s announcement builds on that and takes the total LABGI funding since 2005 over £1 billion, on top of normal Government grants.

Government action through Real Help Now has supported many families and businesses. It is also giving wider support including free business health checks, discounted rate bills for small businesses, tax payment deferrals, capital loans or help with bank loans for business growth, and a 10 day Government payment promise.

Mr. Denham said

"Building economic recovery is the Government’s top priority and we firmly believe in the decisive leadership role councils have to play. Strong, vibrant, decisive local government is an essential part of our plans to promote growth and cut unemployment while rebuilding the public finances.

We put the public sector in the lead while the private sector was struggling, spending and investing to lessen the impact on individuals, businesses and communities. We are giving councils up and down the country a further £50m to support small and new businesses in hard hit areas that might need a little jump start to get up and running again.

"Local councils, and councillors, with their unique democratic mandate, are best placed to provide financial support and local services that are responsive to the pressures being felt by families and businesses in local areas.

"Through our Real Help Now plan, we have committed a billion pounds to create more than 150 000 jobs and guaranteed everyone under the age of 25 a job, training or work experience if they are out of work for over six months and given struggling small businesses financial support through our billion pound Enterprise Finance Guarantee and tax payment deferrals."

To view this table visit http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=412159&NewsAreaID=2&ClientID=320

LABGI reward for 2010/11
This table is for information only. Awards are made to individual Local Authorities.
Sub-Region	Sub-region reward
Bedfordshire and Luton	£664,322
Berkshire	£777,316
Black Country	£1,395,278
Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre	£225,378
Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole	£650,272
Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes	£850,505
Cheshire	£1,197,462
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	£371,880
Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire	£1,029,276
Cumbria	£403,866
Derbyshire	£723,196
Devon	£843,291
Durham County	£317,370
East Kent	£352,199
East Sussex	£513,333
Gloucestershire	£626,290
Greater Cambridgeshire	£661,772
Greater Manchester	£2,706,829
Heart of Essex	£603,690
South-West Essex	£319,617
Herefordshire	£90,751
Hertfordshire	£1,386,687
Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire	£384,610
Inland Kent	£652,903
Lancashire	£541,302
Leicestershire	£822,106
Lincolnshire and Peterborough	£653,285
London	£12,374,010
Merseyside	£1,136,443
Norfolk	£632,833
North Kent	£559,571
North and North-East Lincolnshire	£324,362
North Yorkshire	£555,844
Northamptonshire	£579,938
Northern Hampshire with Surrey Heath	£596,353
Northumberland	£161,292
Nottinghamshire	£659,428
Oxfordshire	£657,838
Shropshire and Telford	£254,011
Somerset	£232,907
South Yorkshire	£1,076,207
South Staffordshire	£463,391
North Staffordshire	£280,311
Suffolk	£591,443
Surrey	£1,067,137
Tees Valley	£332,170
Thames Gateway South Essex	£689,468
Tyne and Wear	£1,017,110
Urban South Hampshire	£1,229,252
Isle of Wight	£79,238
West of England	£1,095,290
West Sussex	£736,993
West Yorkshire	£1,792,680
Wiltshire with Swindon	£647,694
Worcestershire	£411,998
England Population:	£50,000,000