Business Finance
Neath
Port Talbot Community Plan 2005 - 2015 has a key focus to promote
Economic Prosperity through better co-ordinated business support
services. The development of new businesses and the
strengthening of existing ones is core to this
objective. The scheme directly addresses the objectives
of Priority 1 Measure 1 of the previous round of European Union
Funding to ensure that SMEs were able to drive, grow and be
successful. It also allowed them to have access to appropriate
finance from the earliest stages of a business idea through the
expansion of a viable business.
The Business Support Grant Scheme addressed a market failure and
provided much needed access to business finance for new start-up
businesses that did not have a trade record and would find it
difficult to secure a loan. The Business Support Grant Scheme made
the difference between a business getting started or remaining as
an unfulfilled ambition. The Scheme supported by the European
Regional Development Fund (2003-2007) has provided grants to 306
businesses over the period.
A total of £376,682 was invested in ‘start-up’ businesses and a
further £506,085 in existing enterprises. Some of the
statistics for new start-ups were dramatic with turnovers in year 1
ranging from £50,000 to £1,100,000. For many businesses the added
value of the grant was that they were helped to buy new instead of
second hand equipment which would be more reliable and cheaper to
maintain. For others it was that little extra help that
provided them with the opportunity to buy equipment rather than
pursue the lease hire option. One of the major strengths of the
business support grant scheme was that it was not prescriptive and
decisions were made to assist a wide range of enterprises in
differing sectors.
On the 30th June 2008, a new £19 million scheme to help
businesses across five Welsh counties has been given the go ahead
for European Funding. The South West Wales Flexible Business
Finance Scheme, due to be called South West Wales Local Investment
Fund is the first local authority led project to receive
Convergence support totalling £8.9 million from the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Under the new scheme almost 2,000
grants will be available of up to £5,000 to help new and existing
businesses grow and expand. These will build on best practice
developed in the previous schemes targeting SMEs and new
enterprises. This scheme complements WAG’s Single Investment
Fund.
The project, which spans the counties of Carmarthenshire, Swansea,
Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Neath Port Talbot, will support 400
new start ups and 1,400 existing companies. It is anticipated the
scheme could create around 1,000 new jobs over the next six years.
Through the scheme businesses will be able to apply for up to two
grants to help them make capital investments such as buying a new
piece of equipment or extending their business premises.
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Last Updated: 02.03.2009 at 17:08