DCLG gives £25m for Greater Manchester projects

2 Feb 2012, 09:53

The Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, part of the LEP network replacing the regional development agencies, has secured more than £25m from the Government for the city's new Growing Places Fund.

The grant was announced in a written ministerial statement published on Wednesday by the Department for Communities & Local Government.

The fund will support the early delivery of projects in the Greater Manchester Strategy that create jobs and growth. This includes infrastructure that will support commercial and housing developments as well as investments that support business growth.

Mike Blackburn, chairman of the GMLEP, said: "The GPF will support the continued delivery of the Greater Manchester Strategy.

"It will act as an enabling fund and seek to generate economic activity in the short term. This will be achieved by addressing immediate infrastructure and site constraints through the investment of funds into projects that are currently unable to access finance as a result of market failure or where constrained capital means investment is not currently possible.

"The Fund will also be used to leverage all other possible sources of eligible finance, in addition to the private sector leverage, in order to minimise the necessary investment from the Fund."

The GMLEP board will discuss the GPF at the next board meeting on Monday 20 February. The GPF will be used alongside the Regional Growth Fund programme allocation and other public and private sector funding to maximise the number of new and sustainable jobs and to grow the economy in Greater Manchester.

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