Business Growth Programme 2

We are delighted to announce that Funding Round 24 of the £23.5m Business Growth Programme 2 (BGP2) is open for applications. The deadline for submission of your application is Wednesday 17 February 2021*.

BGP2 offers grants of £2,500 to £1,000,000 and is designed to strengthen supply chains, stimulate innovation and help businesses grow. The programme is available to:

• Start-Up B2B Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) moving into or located in The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership area only
• Existing B2B SMEs moving into or located in The Greater Birmingham & Solihull and The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership areas

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Birmingham City Council, BGP2 builds on the successful delivery of the £33m Business Growth Programme which closed in December 2018.

Grant funding is limited and subject to availability.

All of the documents you will need to apply for a BGP2 grant are available now.

BGP2 grant documentation

*Funding Round 25 will open on Monday 22 February 2021

Important announcement

As at 10 December 2020, the BGP2 budget for The Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) area is almost fully committed.

GBSLEP commitments include the amount of GBSLEP grant funding allocated to date, BGP2 applications in the pipeline and those applications ready for consideration at the January 2021 investment/board panels.

We will continue to accept GBSLEP BGP2 grant applications, however any decisions made on applications received post 10 December 2020 will be assessed on an “in principle” basis and will be subject to availability of funds.

We are in the process of contacting GBSLEP businesses that have live BGP2 projects to ascertain whether they will be fully spending the grants committed against their projects.

We are trying to be as flexible as we can with businesses and we understand that projects may have been delayed because of the difficult trading conditions that they have been experiencing.

As a result of this exercise, if there is any underspent grant funding, it will go back into the GBSLEP grant funding pot and will be reallocated to “in principle” cases.

The BDI Team will also be contacting any applicants that have submitted application forms to us, but which have not yet reached appraisal stage, to inform them that their applications will be considered on an “in principle” basis and will be subject to availability of funds.

Please note that there is still BGP2 grant funding available in The Marches.