North East England led the way in setting up public sector investment funds to support local SMEs. North East Access to Finance oversees the ‘legacy’ returns from these funds. To date, over £25m of legacy cash has been generated to re-invest in new ventures and growth businesses.
Working with Local Enterprise Partnerships and other funders, these returns, along with match funding, have helped to set up new initiatives to help North East businesses, targeted to support key sectors and areas of need.
These include the North East Fund – a set of five publicly-backed venture capital and loan funds in the North East Local Enterprise Partnership Area. Each fund is managed by an FCA authorised fund manager, overseen by an experienced team based in the region. They will allocate £120m by 2023. More details can be found here.
In the Tees Valley, legacy funding has contributed to exciting new initiatives such as DigitalCity, and the Tees Valley Combined Authority also participates in the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. Details of this can be found here.
A key part of the team’s work now is overseeing the realisation of investments from the Finance for Business North East funds, which were investing across the North East up to 2016. Details of Finance for Business North East can be found at http://www.northeastfinance.org.
If you are looking for business support advice, please call the Government helpline on 0300 456 3565 or visit www.gov.uk/business-finance-support and search their detailed listings. For local advice, visit your local Growth Hub at either www.northeastgrowthhub.co.uk or ‘Tees Valley Compass’ https://teesvalley-ca.gov.uk/investment/business-compass/ depending on where you are based.
Tender for Group Auditor
We are inviting suitably qualified firms to tender for the contract as external Auditor for the group for a period of three years.
NB interested parties are asked to register an expression of interest and we will send you the Applicant Pack, containing further information which you should read before preparing your bid.
Details of the tender and how to apply are in the Invitation to Tender
Expressions of interest and questions about the tender should be emailed to james.arkless@nea2f.co.uk.
Closing date 9 January 2025
