£30m funding brings wind park step closer

Able Group development director Neil Etherington described the announcement that the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is to receive funding from the third round of the regional growth fund as “another resounding vote of confidence for the development of the Humber as a whole”.

Able UK plans to build Europe’s largest offshore wind park on the south bank of the Humber (AMEP)– a £450m development which alone would create more than 4,000 jobs.

The Humber LEP has received £30m from the regional growth fund, which it will use to support the renewable energy sector on the south bank of the Humber. The cash will also be used to drive growth in other key sectors including logistics, food and digital, in order to stimulate economic activity.

Mr Etherington said yesterday: “This announcement could not come at a better time.

“AMEP is gathering very serious momentum.

“The prospect of a truly integrated offshore wind cluster is becoming ever closer to reality and this is reflected not only in the widespread support from local and national Government but, more importantly, from the sector itself.

“Industrial logic will determine where the investments are made and the economies of scale that AMEP affords are recognised internationally.

“AMEP proposals go before the Secretary of State for Transport early next year and it is planned to address the offshore wind industry’s concerns over the lack of ports capacity on the East coast of the UK.”

Altogether, Yorkshire and the Humber is to receive a £100m windfall from the third round of the regional growth fund.

Yorkshire’s 15 winning regional growth fund bids include a plan by healthcare giant DePuy International to construct a new research centre in Leeds.

Most of the 10 private companies in Yorkshire who had submitted successful bids told the Yorkshire Post yesterday that they could say little about what they planned to do with the RGF funding, because they were going through a confidential process of due diligence that could go on for months.

They included JH Fenner, which has been provisionally awarded a grant by the fund to help it develop a new research and development facility next to its factory in Hull.

The company, which is a subsidiary of Fenner, is a market leader in the production of conveyor belts for the mining industry in Europe, the former Soviet Union and North America.

The spokesman at another firm that submitted a successful bid, the Doncaster-based developer and contractor Cementation Skanska, said: “The grant is subject to the due diligence process over the next three to six months, but is expected to provide up to £1.28m of funds to support the planned modernisation of Skanska’s works in Bentley, Doncaster. The grant will be combined with private sector funds to finance the project.”

Leading engineering and manufacturing firms across West and South Yorkshire will be given grants to expand their operations, and Leeds City Council will be given money to build flood defences at Middleton, allowing it to redevelop an adjoining piece of land.

But the vast majority of the money has been handed to the region’s local enterprise partnerships which will allow them to offer grants to small businesses in need of support.

Sheffield city region LEP – covering all South Yorkshire – has secured £25m, which it said will create 1,500 new private sector jobs by 2015.

It said 27 firms across South Yorkshire have already put forward plans which are likely to receive support from the fund.

Make a bid, firms urged

Leeds city region LEP has also received £30m from the regional growth fund, which will be used for grants to firms in industries including life sciences, digital and creative, low carbon, advanced manufacturing and financial and business services.

Neil McLean, chairman of the Leeds City Region LEP, said three projects had been pre-selected to benefit from the funding, and he called on other companies to make innovative and creative bids.

The due diligence process is expected to take a maximum of six months, which means companies who successfully apply for the cash should get it in early 2013.

“It’s up to businesses in the city region to make strong bids,” Mr McLean said.