Future of GBI update October 2010
November 4, 2010 by Gary · Leave a Comment
With the publication on the BIS website of the Government’s White Paper on the growth in the economy called Local Growth:realising every place’s potential the future of Grant for Business Investment has been made clearer. If you had been looking to apply for this grant over the summer you will have found that the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) had been holding or not accepting applications pending budget review. The White Paper clearly sets out that “small scale” GBI has been withdrawn (these are the cases previously decided upon by the RDAs) i.e. those with grant values under £2m, GBI grants over £2m remain in exceptional circumstances and will be assessed by BIS, as they used to do. What counts as exceptional isn’t detailed but perhaps an indication is given here, presumably the tradional use of large scale GBI for car plants remains.
In our opinion the removal of small scale GBI is an error and should be reconsidered, this helped many smaller businesses across England and if business are to employ the numbers of people being made redundant in Government cutbacks such support is vital.
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