Corus/Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP)

In December 2009, the Government announced a £60million fund to support the Tees Valley region in overcoming the mothballing of the Corus plant, and assist the area to attract new industries that would support the local economy.

Middlesbrough Council has worked alongside a number of partners and the Regional Development Agency to develop packages aimed at allocating the Government funding. The overall package is called the Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP).

TVIP is providing a mixture of short-term support aimed at supporting individuals and businesses affected by the Corus mothballing, and providing long-term support that will help the region overcome the potential loss of the steel making industry.

Listed below are the themes that TVIP is supporting, including information on recently announced support:

• Apprenticeships - £2.4million package of support allocated to engineering apprenticeships in the Tees Valley, including those affected by the mothballing of Corus.
• Enterprise & Business Support - £1.4million to enhance support for new and existing businesses, via additional business start-up support, and support to help businesses diversify. Further information on this and other Enterprise & Business Support is available below.
• Engineering Diversification – enabling the area’s design engineering sector to diversify into new activities.
• Innovation – to enable new and collaborative innovation projects.
• Energy Efficiency – £5m for energy efficiency capital grants, targeted at energy intensive businesses, to help investment in technology and energy management systems with the aim of reducing energy consumption.
• Carbon Capture & Storage – to enable detailed engineering and business development of a shared carbon capture & storage system.
• Business Investment & Infrastructure – to secure additional business investment, by supporting specific industry projects that will diversify the Tees Valley economy into new low carbon products.

Further work is ongoing to develop all the TVIP themes further and announcements will be made in the coming weeks and months regarding specific support.

For further information please contact the Business Support team at Middlesbrough Council on 01642 729007, or e-mail businesssupport@middlesbrough.gov.uk. In addition, further information is available via One North East at http://www.onenortheast.co.uk/


Business & Enterprise Support

The measures announced via this theme of the TVIP are:

Business Link

• Enhanced Intensive Start-Up Support (ISUS) – the intervention rate for ISUS support has been increased to 90%
• Innovation Vouchers - Innovation Vouchers support collaboration between businesses and academic institutions, which will now be available to pre-start businesses as well as existing businesses.
• Innovation, Advice & Guidance – the intervention rate for accessing professional support, enabling businesses to explore new innovation and products within their businesses has been increased to 50%.
• Business Mentoring – a new scheme has been created to provide mentoring support aimed at helping businesses diversify from markets that are no longer sustainable.

In order to access, or obtain further information on the above products, please contact Business Link on 0845 6009006, or http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/

UK Steel Enterprise (UKSE)
UKSE, which is a subsidiary of Corus, has recently announced a package of additional financial assistance to support the Tees Valley area.

The package includes:

• Doubling the level of UKSE investment into small & medium sized enterprises, via loans and equity, in the Tees Valley area.
• A new Regeneration Fund offering a combination of grants and loans for start-up and fledgling (under 18 months trading) businesses.
• Community Support Fund to back local community projects and other business support initiatives.

In order to access, or obtain further information on the above products, please contact USKE on 01642 777888, or http://www.uksteelenterprise.co.uk/

For additional information, please contact the Business Support team at Middlesbrough Council on 01642 729007, or e-mail: mailto:businesssupport@middlesbrough.gov.uk