Service which secured over £120,000 for three Northumberland businesses reaches new milestone

The Rural Business Growth Fund has also approved over 20 business grants to date.

Among them are Glendale Engineering (Milfield) Ltd which applied to fund plant machinery including a 14-tonne excavator and received £42,640.

Silvermoor Ltd, meanwhile, invested in machinery for manufacturing and received £57,974 and Pilgrims Gelato food processing business received £23,053 to help plans to expand and increase productivity.

The RBGS strives to help with growth plans and guide business towards sources of finance and enable expansion and diversify for the future. Resilience planning support is also an essential area covered as part of the service.

Registrations are still being accepted and they are keen to support more businesses on their growth journey ahead of the programme ending in June next year.

Jonpaul Heron, delivery manager at Advance Northumberland, said: “We are delighted to work with so many North of Tyne based businesses from Berwick to Hexham and have supported a wide range of sectors from manufacturing businesses to local food producers.”

The RBGS 2020 – 2023 is a £7.9m programme of investment part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

Cllr Carl Johnson, North of Tyne combined authority cabinet member for investment and resources, said: “This is a landmark achievement by the Rural Business Growth Service.

“These are tough times and its programmes such as this that have seen us delivering to improve people’s lives. That’s our job; to create jobs and to put in place the right programmes to get our businesses and our people ready to grasp the opportunities in the months and years to come.”

Cllr Wojciech Ploszaj, Northumberland County Council cabinet member for business, said: "It is great the project has reached this milestone - that's 500 businesses in rural parts of the county that have been helped to grow and diversify in our region.

"With the programme ending next summer we'd encourage businesses who are interested in benefiting from the support and advice available to get in touch with the team as soon as possible."

For more information contact [email protected] or visit www.ruralbusinessgrowthservice.co.uk.