Growing Places Fund. Pre qualification form submitted

16 February 2012

SUCCESS!! - We have been awarded our allocation.  Please find our press release.

We are currently working with Cornwall Council on arrangements for delivery of the fund in a way which best supports local businesses.  The LEP was also successful in its bid for £13million from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and is looking at ways to join up delivery of the two funds so that accessing the funding is as easy as possible for businesses.

In response to the Government's recent announcement of the Growing Places Fund and that Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly LEP had been allocated £4,211,133, a pre-qualification questionnaire was submitted by the LEP with Cornwall Council acting as the accountable body and took into account comments received via this website.

The GPF is a "revolving fund" aimed at generating economic activity in the short term by addressing immediate infrastructure and site constraints to promote the delivery of jobs and housing. The "revolving"' feature of the fund means that there is a mechanism to recoup the initial outlay from participating organisations and to use this to establish a recycling fund to continue subsequent rounds.

The pre-qualification questionnaire focuses on the LEP's proposal to issue a competitive call for proposals from the public and private sector for "investment ready" schemes associated with transport, utilities and flood defences or other constraints which are prohibiting development as per the prospectus.

Within the pre-qualification questionnaire, it was suggested that the applications received from promoters would be assessed in terms of deliverability as follows:

• Funding packages substantially in place
• Demonstration that the project cannot go ahead without intervention from GPF
• Planning permission, either granted or shortly going to committee, with a very high degree of confidence of success
• Ability to yield a financial return for recycling

Prioritisation of projects that pass these criteria will then be assessed against the following qualitative and quantitative criteria:

1. Number of jobs: Assessed against the funding required
2. Recycling potential and timescale for recoup of funds
3. Size of the development unlocked
4. Proportion of affordable housing
5. Quality of the proposed designs in respect of environmental sustainability and attractiveness
6. Deadweight: The extent to which the project can go ahead without intervention from GPF

More information will be posted on this website once our pre-qualification questionnaire has been assessed by Department for Communities and Local Government

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