Businesses in Bucks boosted by investment ​

Buckinghamshire Council has awarded £1.6m to help boost support for businesses and entrepreneurs in Buckinghamshire.

The funding is from central government and will help support a range of local businesses and entrepreneurs as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).

The UKSPF forms part of the Government's Levelling Up agenda. Its aim is to make funding available to help build pride in local areas, support high quality skills training, support pay, employment and productivity growth and increase life chances. The funding will be used to strengthen the local economy by providing tailored support to help businesses to start, grow, increase productivity, and drive innovation, and employment.

Business support organisations were invited to bid for a share of the Buckinghamshire funding earlier this year. Applications needed to focus on four key priorities – rural business support; business growth and productivity; business start-ups and entrepreneurship; and sustainability and the journey to net zero.  

Through the competitive process, 4 organisations were granted funding for a range of initiatives:

• Enterprise Nation - £207k for its Next Generation Bucks programme to boost the number of start-ups in the county.
• Buckinghamshire Business First - £509k for its Growth Programme, offering tailored growth advice and support to local businesses.
• Maybe Solutions - £136k for a programme of social media support focusing on high street business growth.
• Retail Revival - £167k for providing tailored support to retail businesses to help increase productivity and growth.
• Buckinghamshire Business First - £506k to work with local businesses to calculate carbon emissions and support with ways to reduce them.
• Buckinghamshire Business First - £69k to provide support to rural businesses in the county.

Martin Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire Council said: "We are delighted to be able to allocate this funding across a range of business support organisations who will help develop and grow Buckinghamshire businesses and equip our next generation of entrepreneurs. In Buckinghamshire we pride ourselves on being a county where small and medium businesses thrive and this funding helps us to ensure that legacy continues."

Martin added: "We are particularly keen to see a focus on helping businesses to cut their carbon emissions and adopt practices to be more energy efficient which ties into our council aim to reach net zero before 2050. We are also pleased at the focus on supporting businesses in rural areas. Lots of our local businesses have faced real challenges in the past few years but I hope that the initiatives we are funding here will give them a much-needed boost and ensure continued growth and development for our local economy."