- United Kingdom grant aid
The
Assisted Areas ofGreat Britain are based upon a map drawn up and agreed with theEuropean Commission in October 2006. The map was approved by the European Commission in December 2006 and will run from 2007 until 2013.Under new EU guidelines, the proportion of the UK population covered by Assisted Areas has been reduced from 30.9% in the period from 2000 to 2006, to 23.9% [http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file34524.pdf] . This reduction is a result of recent
EU enlargement and the success of the UK economy in recent years. [http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file34524.pdf]The basis of the map is to provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 areas for
Regional Selective Assistance grants (RSA), recently re-titled asSelective Finance for Investment in theEnglish Regions (SFI), but remaining as RSA inWales andScotland , and additionally large areas of the UK, where a lower level ofgrant aid can also be made available toSmall and Medium companies . These areas are classified as Tier 3 (see tab England Tier 3), - this grant scheme is known asEnterprise Grant Scheme (EGS) forEnglish companies ,Assembly Investment Grant (AIG) forWelsh companies andInvest for Growth Scheme (IFG) forScottish companies .However,
Government Aid can be only be provided by these currentgrant schemes within the constricts set out the European Commission which among other constraints require a degree of proof that a project will not proceed without the requested grant aid.England
Responsibility for delivery of the schemes in
England is mainly from1 April that of theRegional Development Agencies for RSA grants, whilst the Small Business Service handles both EGS and SMART, although larger RSA applications still have a direct involvement in the decision taking process by theDTI (over £2M).cotland
Scotland has its own variant schemes of RSA and the smaller grant, IFG scheme, both administered by the
Scottish Executive . Again it should be noted that this is adevolved Department, directly under the auspices of theScottish Parliament .Wales
In Wales, both RSA and the new AIG, small grant scheme, are administered by the
Welsh Assembly Government (but not theWDA - a common misconception) from offices inCardiff , Swansea for South Wales, and Colwyn Bay for North Wales areas.External links
* [http://www.gra-ukgrants.com for more information]
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