Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Manufacturing and engineering companies voices their opinions

 

Firstly Happy New year to all readers of the blog! May 2013 deliver all that you wish for.

In last months column I introduced the new Chesterfield Manufacturing and Engineering Forum. Destination Chesterfield recently held the first event which was hosted and chaired by fellow Destination Chesterfield Board Member, James Brand, Managing Director of United Cast Bar Ltd.

A packed board room of businesses discussed the latest issues arising from their respective sectors and how they can work collaboratively in the future to grow their businesses. Subjects discussed included improvements to the process of training, skills, apprenticeships etc including the potential collaboration with educational establishments, and raising the profile of the manufacturing and engineering sector as a whole in Chesterfield.

There was also an update on the Regional Growth Fund, which is available to Chesterfield businesses from funds allocated to both Sheffield City Region and D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnerships to support businesses in the Town to grow and create new jobs.

The input from the businesses that attended the forum will feed directly into the development of the next phase of the Destination Chesterfield delivery Plan which will be launched in March.

The next Chesterfield Manufacturing and Engineering Forum will take place in April. If you are a Chesterfield or North Derbyshire manufacturing or engineering business and would like to register interest in attending or would like to find out more about becoming involved with Destination Chesterfield please e-mail the Destination Chesterfield Manager, Dominic Stevens-- dominic.stevens@dncc.co.uk.

 

Funding success for Chesterfield

There has been great news over the past few weeks with funding secured for businesses to develop and grow in Chesterfield.

 

£25m has been secured from the Regional Growth Fund for Sheffield City Region and Chesterfield has been fortunate to be part of this process. We know there will be just under £2m of the money for Chesterfield businesses, with potentially more for other companies in future, and this will be boosted to £10.1m as the businesses themselves put funding into the projects. The projects will secure 25 existing jobs and create an additional 205 jobs, all within Chesterfield borough. The majority will be related to new investment in manufacturing, both the development of new products and the introduction of new processes.

 

D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership also secured £5m from the Regional Growth Fund for the ‘Unlocking Investment Growth’ programme will means small and medium sized businesses can apply for grants of between £50,000 and £1m, which can be used to invest in individual schemes which help to create jobs, support business expansion and generate economic growth.

 

Chesterfield has also been successful in its bid for a £10k grant from the government for a Town Team Partner project. The bid, which was put forward by Destination Chesterfield and had the full support of the town’s MP, Toby Perkins and Chesterfield Borough Council was in response to the earlier unsuccessful bids for the Portas Pilot initiative.

 

This is excellent news for Chesterfield, the £10,000 funding will be added to £20,000 generated by the Chesterfield Champions scheme to launch ‘Incubation Street’, a new business start up scheme for Chesterfield. These are exactly the types of initiatives Destination Chesterfield and the Chesterfield Champions Scheme were set up for and we thank them all for their contributions which will go towards supporting the growth of the next generation of businesses in Chesterfield.

 

Details of how these funds can be accessed will be promoted on www.chesterfield.co.uk once full details are available.