Milestone reached by Rural Business Growth Service

The Rural Business Growth Service has registered 500 local businesses to their programme, which provides individual tailored support developed and managed by a team of Rural Enterprise Specialists. The Rural Business Growth Fund has also approved over 20 business grants to date.

The service can help with growth plans and guide business towards sources of finance and enable expansion and diversify for the future. Resilience planning support is also an essential area covered as part of the service. The programme is still accepting registrations and are keen to support more businesses on their growth journey ahead of the programme ending in June next year.

Jonpaul Heron, Delivery Manager, Advance Northumberland said: “We are delighted to work with so many North of Tyne based businesses from Berwick to Hexham and have supported a wide range of sectors from manufacturing businesses to local food producers”.

Some local Northumberland based businesses to recently benefit from the project grant include:

• Glendale Engineering Milfield Ltd, who applied to fund plant machinery, including a 14-tonne excavator and received £42,640
• Silvermoor Ltd, invested in machinery for manufacturing and received £57,974
• Pilgrims Gelato food processing business wanted to expand to increase productivity and received £23,053.

The North of Tyne Rural Business Growth Service 2020 – 2023 is a £7.9m programme of investment part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020, and the North of Tyne Combined Authority. The programme will assist over 300 businesses on their growth journey by 2023.

North of Tyne Combined Authority Cabinet Member for Investment and Resources Cllr Carl Johnson said:

“This is a landmark achievement by the Rural Business Growth Service.

“These are tough times and its programmes such as this that have seen us delivering to improve people’s lives. That’s our job; to create jobs and to put in place the right programmes to get our businesses and our people ready to grasp the opportunities in the months and years to come.”

Councillor Wojciech Ploszaj, Northumberland County Council Cabinet Member for Business, said: "It is great the project has reached this milestone - that's 500 businesses in rural parts of the county that have been helped to grow and diversify in our region.

"With the programme ending next summer we'd encourage businesses who are interested in benefiting from the support and advice available to get in touch with the team as soon as possible."

If you are a micro, small or medium sized business based in the rural areas of Northumberland, Newcastle and North Tyneside then you may be able to access this support. 

For more information about the service, contact the Rural Business Growth Team on 01670 528 400 Email: ruralsupport@advancenorthumberland.co.uk or visit www.ruralbusinessgrowthservice.co.uk