Home | Business | Business Issues | Grants and Financial Assistance | Selective Finance For Investment in England
Selective Finance For Investment in England
Introduction
SFIE grants are available for businesses which serve (or plan to serve) more than a local market, and are looking to invest in capital equipment, which will result in gains in productivity through expansion of the business, including job creation.
Selective Finance for Investment in England (SFIE) is a national Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) grant scheme, run by the Regional Development Agencies, which for the South East is SEEDA.
Projects need to meet the scheme criteria
Applications that are likely to be successful in receiving a grant will be those which have the closest fit with the SFIE criteria (below) and SEEDA’s Regional Economic Strategy.
Projects must be within an eligible area - SMEs (Small and medium sized enterprises) can apply in selected parts of Kent, Oxford and the South coast - see the SEEDA website for details.
Project costs which are eligible
Grants are awarded as a percentage of eligible project costs, which may include:
- capital costs, such as property, plant and machinery (Assets can be acquired under a lease; however, other than in the case of land/buildings, this must be a financial lease and there must be an obligation to purchase the asset when the lease expires.)
- some wage costs of key, skilled jobs created directly as a result of the project. Please provide details of all job types and salary levels and SEEDA will advise on eligibility
- some intangible assets are also eligible
Grant amounts
Grant amount is dependent on size of the company and whether the project will be located within an Assisted Area. Amount is also dependent on eligible project expenditure, number of jobs created or safeguarded, job skill levels and project quality.
In all cases the minimum grant award is £10,000. The minimum eligible expenditure by the company is therefore £67,000 (based on a grant of 15% of costs). All grants are paid in instalments, in arrears, upon achievement of set capital expenditure and job creation targets.
Small Enterprises - less than 50 group employees, turnover or balance sheet < €10m Up to 15% of eligible project costs up to £2.5m
Medium Enterprises - less than 250 group employees, turnover < €50m or balance sheet < €43m Up to 7.5% of eligible project costs up to £1.25m
What is not eligible?
The European Commission restricts aid to certain sectors including: fishery & aquaculture; primary production of agricultural products (and some processing and marketing of those products); coal; steel; shipbuilding; and synthetic fibres.
There are also national restrictions for the scheme which mean that the following are unlikely to be eligible:
- local consumer-type service activities (e.g. retailing)
- mining and construction – if employment is not permanent
- tourism
- charitable organisations – unless they are of a commercial nature
- franchise operations
- hospital projects – as the primary health care sector is supplied by the NHS
- education – Schools/Colleges – as this is covered by the Dfes
- energy generation projects – if they only serve a local market
- companies controlled by the public sector
Projects which only involve moving into new premises, with little expenditure on capital equipment (other than fit-out costs) are unlikely to be supported as these will not meet the objectives of the scheme.
Find out more
Please see the link under external links for further information on the scheme and its selection criteria as well as application details.
