Business leaders hail windfall

New research facilities, factories, warehouses and flood defences will be developed around Yorkshire following the announcement, with firms in the green energy, advanced manufacturing and healthcare sectors all winning grants from the regional growth fund.

Among Yorkshire’s 15 winning bids is a plan by healthcare giant DePuy International to construct a new research centre in Leeds.

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 (LEPs) in Leeds and Sheffield city regions and in the Humber, allowing them to offer grants to small businesses in need of support.

The Humber LEP has received £30m, which it will use to support the renewable energy sector on the south bank of the Humber, as well as driving growth in other key sectors including logistics, food and digital.

Lord Haskins, chairman of the Humber LEP, said: “This is a big win for the LEP and its partners that will help us to grow the Humber economy.

“The fact that a third of the bid is for renewable energy shows again the confidence Government has in the Humber to deliver with this sector. We now have a comprehensive package of support across the area to further strengthen the Humber’s leading offer for manufacturing, installation, operations and maintenance.”

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

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.

LEP chairman James Newman said: “This bid brings together dozens of companies with robust plans for growth. It is now crucial that we focus on the delivery of this ambitious programme.”

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg batted away Labour criticisms of the growth fund and insisted it is a far more effective way of driving growth than the now-defunct regional development agencies.

“I’m absolutely convinced this is a really effective way of helping particularly parts of the North of our country, which have been over-reliant on the public sector for far too long,” added the Sheffield Hallam MP.

“What it does is invest in success.

“Unlike previous job creation schemes under Labour – where they would make grand announcements, someone would be given a job, but six months later they’d be out of a job – this is deliberately aimed at working with private sector companies who for whatever reason can’t get hold of the money to invest.

“They are creating jobs that they wanted to create anyway, and so it makes it more likely that those jobs are jobs which last.”

Mr Clegg also rejected the suggestion Yorkshire should have received a greater share of the spoils, amid concern it secured less funding than its neighbours.

“If you support the successful companies, they are the ones that create the jobs today, tomorrow, next month, next year,” he said.

“If you just divide up the cake in the old-fashioned way in Whitehall, according to dollops of money going to this county and dollops of money going to that county, you’re not necessarily creating jobs. And at the end of the day that’s what this is about – it’s about jobs that last.”