£150 million fund for businesses in northern England

By Anna Jordan on Growth Business – Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

The chancellor, John Healey, has announced a new £150 million fund for northern businesses.

This scheme will provide funding between £5 million and £15 million to ‘the most innovative and fast-growing businesses’ across the north, including university spinouts.

Funding has already allocated to British Business Bank, but no details on how to apply for the funding have been published.

In his speech on Monday September 7, Healey also announced the Northern 500. This will gather 500 of the north’s most ambitious mid-sized businesses into a single growth community led by the Great North partnership of mayors, supported by the private sector and central government.

Among the chancellor’s plans is a desire to double the number of unicorn firms in the UK.

There has been mixed reaction to the news. Keith Griffiths, founder and CEO of The Entrepreneur Festival, said:

“£150 million is welcome but it won’t create northern growth if the government gets the allocation of the funds wrong.

“Backing fast-growing northern businesses is absolutely the right ambition, but government shouldn’t confuse writing cheques with creating growth. If this money simply follows the best-known names or whatever happens to be labelled ‘innovative’, we risk missing the businesses with the real potential to become the north’s next major employers.

“Devolution only works if local leaders listen to the people who actually build and scale businesses. Experienced founders should be shaping where this money goes, not sitting on the sidelines while others decide what success looks like.

“That’s where the Northern 500 could be genuinely powerful. Put the people creating jobs, investing and scaling businesses in the room, and use their experience to work with government and local mayors on what businesses actually need.

“The north needs the power to back entrepreneurial talent wherever it is – including the businesses nobody has heard of yet. Give the north the money and the powers but trust the people who know how to grow a business to help decide where that investment goes.”

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