Insider Media Limited

Tourism, sustainability and business support proposals are top of the agenda among the West Midlands local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) backing submissions for the second round of Regional Growth Fund (RGF) investment. Insider spoke to three of the region's LEPs ahead of today's RGF deadline. Steve Hollis, board member of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP, said the organisation had received a substantially higher number of proposals to put forward for the second round.

Today (1 July) is the closing date for all bids for the remaining £1bn of the RGF. There is expected to be a third and final round later in the year to delegate any remaining cash and investment returned from projects which do not pass the due diligence stage.

Hollis said the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP had not discouraged any sectors from applying for funding, but said the organisation – led by the managing director of John Lewis, Andy Street – had been keen to back sustainable projects with a guaranteed lifetime.

He said: "The bids that we have received have been of very good quality – and a much higher number than were submitted to us in the first round.

"We've not had many applications from bids which were rejected last time round, largely because those projects would have been declined for the same reasons as they were before.

"There's only so much cash in the time, and the process has really opened our eyes to the fact that the RGF is not the only funding pot out there – it's only one source of equity funding. Many of the applicants weren't aware of the other sources out there."

In contrast, Roger Dowthwaite of the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP, told Insider that the organisation had received a similar number of bids to last time, with about half coming from businesses which had a project rejected from the last round.

He said: "A lot of businesses have reassessed their bids and resubmitted their projects – I think it's helped having more support from the LEP in this round, as the bodies weren't properly established in the last round. This time, we have been asked to endorse projects, and we have had some excellent submissions.

"This could be the last round of funding under the scheme and I think a lot of people have tried to bring forward any potential proposals they can. We have rejected a few, as it's a very competitive process, and we have to choose which bids we're backing. However, we did very well as a region in the last round as we secured a bid from Jaguar Land Rover, so if we come away with similar success this time around, we'll be happy."

Chairman of the Marches LEP, Dr Geoffrey Davies, said: "We want to endorse bids which bring sustainable employment and economic vitality to the Marches region. Submissions, which lever in private sector investment for projects which have significant potential for economic growth, will win our support. This backing could make a vital difference in whether funding is granted by the RGF."

In the first round of RGF bidding, the West Midlands won five successful bids, which are estimated to create a combined total of 40,000 jobs.

The successful bids came from Alstom Grid UK; Birmingham Chamber of Commerce (on behalf of Birmingham City Council); Bosch Thermotechnology; Jaguar Land Rover and Prince’s Regeneration Trust.