Getting Building Fund welcomed

Devon County Council has welcomed the Government’s investment into schemes to help kickstart the economy.

The Getting Building Fund will provide the support to fast-track a number of schemes in the county to be delivered by January 2022.

The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership has been allocated £35.4 million – the biggest share in the region – from the £900 million national fund, which is part of the Government’s response to the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.

The supported schemes will deliver jobs, regeneration, skills, innovation and clean energy – all of which support the priorities of Team Devon’s Economy and Business Recovery Prospectus.

Projects which will benefit from the funding include the Exeter Science Park “Grow-Out” building and Devon Work Hubs.

Councillor Rufus Gilbert, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills, said: “Devon’s economy is expected to be one of the hardest hit by the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, and this announcement from the Government is extremely welcome and endorses the priorities set out in Team Devon’s recovery plans for the county. It demonstrates the value of working closely together and we’re continuing to work closely with the LEP on future programmes of investment. We’re united in our efforts to restart, regrow and reset our economy to enable Devon to emerge stronger and the projects highlighted through this funding will play a major part in that.”

Karl Tucker, Chair of the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “This economic stimulus will help our plans to restart, revitalise and grow our economy. Each of the projects will support growth of the local economy and deliver the LEP’s outcomes. We welcome the Getting Building Fund to start new projects and accelerate projects across the Heart of the South West. We recognise that there are still many other important projects that we identified in our area that currently remain unfunded. We will continue to work with Government to secure future funding to further invest in our recovery pipeline.”

Dr Sally Basker, CEO of Exeter Science Park, said: “Exeter Science Park is thrilled that its shovel-ready Grow-out Building has been awarded a Getting Building Fund grant. This low-risk, fourth-generation design will be BREEAM Excellent, net carbon zero for operational energy and support social distancing. Exeter Science Park helps innovative STEMM companies to deliver extraordinary growth and this new building will provide a much needed stepping stone between the incubation space in our newly reopened Science Park Centre and the much larger offices and laboratories in our Lamar, Lovelace, Newton and Turing Buildings. It will help larger start-ups relocate, smaller start-ups grow, support local recovery and drive Devon’s productivity and economic growth.”

For more information go to https://heartofswlep.co.uk/

Team Devon’s Economy and Business Recovery Prospectus can be viewed on our webpages.