Happy Easter! We hope you had a great Bank Holiday weekend and are ready to start Q2 of 2024 with a bang.
We’ve had a very busy start to the year at FSB North East so here are a few quick updates on what’s been going on throughout March, plus a catch up on any news you may have missed.
As ever, if you have any questions about FSB membership, what’s going on in your area, business support needs, or issues impacting your business, please do get in touch. We’re always happy to help where we can.
Devolution and local elections
We continue to work with business and political leaders across the region to represent your views, ensuring small businesses and the self-employed community are at the heart of policy and decision making.
This is an important year for the North East: on 2 May, residents across the region will take to the polls to cast their votes for their elected representatives. This includes the local elections taking place across a number of our Local Authorities, and Mayoral elections across both of our combined authorities, covering every part of the region.
If you need a little extra information on what devolution means for your business and community, and importantly, what the remit and role of the Mayor of a Combined Authority is, the Local Government Association has put together this comprehensive hub to answer all of your questions.
FSB and other key regional stakeholders have been working with leaders to co-design and develop the priorities and frameworks for the incoming expanded North East Combined Authority (which will cover County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear in an est. £4.2bn deal over 30 years).
One of the key areas of development has been around the £1.2bn Investment Fund. Taking into account the consultation, engagement and discussions – undertaken with support from the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) - the teams leading the activity now have an investment framework in draft form.
As a key next step, they would like to take the opportunity to share details of this with you, the business community, ahead of the steps that will follow the election of a Mayor for the North East on 2 May. FSB, in partnership with the North East Chamber of Commerce and CBI, will host a virtual session for our members on 24 April (2pm – 3pm) to give you the opportunity to explore the proposals and draft framework further. Book your place online.
In case you missed it…
- FSB, in partnership with the CBI and North East Chamber of Commerce, hosted two Business Audience Hustings events earlier this month to give members and business leaders across the region the opportunity to meet and question your Mayoral candidates. Take a look at the press releases for the Tees Valley and North East events for more information.
- Our England-wide business bootcamp series visited the region on 14 March at the stunning Wynyard Hall.
Businesses from across the North East, Tees Valley and North Yorkshire enjoyed a full day networking, learning from experts and meeting key business support providers in the region in this action-packed day, hosted by the brilliant Elly Fiorentini of BBC Radio York.
If you missed it, don’t worry! Bootcamp will be visiting Doncaster on 23 May. You can book your ticket online or take a look at the other Bootcamp events across England on our website.
- We announced the North East regional winners for the FSB Celebrating Small Business Awards 2024. Our winners attended a reception event to receive their awards and will now go on to represent the region at the UK national final on 9 May in Blackpool. We wish them all the very best at the national finals!
- Did you catch us at Teesside Expo on 21 March? If not, don’t worry. We’ll be at the North East Expo on 25 April and back at the Teesside Expo in the Autumn too. Watch this space for more information on these.
- International Women’s Day on 8 March offered some great opportunities for FSB and our members. We were delighted to be invited to be part of a panel of inspirational women at an event hosted by the Darlington Economic Campus. The relationship with regionally based civil servants across the 9 departments based as the campus continues to grow and our inclusion at this event is testament to that. We work hard to ensure the voice of regional business is heard at the heart of central government and will continue to build on this solid foundation. We were also delighted to be included in the Chronicle 100 Great North East Women list this year, demonstrating the leadership role we continually play in advocating on behalf of the business community across the region.
- Spring Budget on 6 March saw some changes introduced that will impact your business, employees and customers. As with all major fiscal events, we outlined our recommendations in our pre-budget submission and advocated for improvements to trading conditions for small businesses and the self-employed. You can read our post budget breakdown on our website and keep up-to-date with significant national policy for small businesses by following FSB Westminster on LinkedIn and @fsb_policy on X.
In other news…
✅ Our latest Small Business Index (SBI) survey is live and we want to hear your views.
The Intel from this quarterly survey drives so much of our policy activity. It’s vital that the voice of the North East and Tees Valley business community is included! Click the link to take the survey and help to form our future policy recommendations to Government and key decision-makers.
✅ Hartree Centre – Open Call for Projects
It is time to submit your applications for 12-weeks of fully funded support!
This programme of a 12-week collaborative data project - open to SMEs across the UK - gives you access to a wide range of expertise across our team of data scientists and data engineers and will include: Working and learning together, business understanding, data understanding, prototyping, integration, communication, and case study creation. To apply, you should have a project idea with a compelling story, a data science or AI focus, potential commercial impact, and perhaps some element of risk involved. Deadline for submissions is 23 April.
Learn more here and apply here (Hartree Proposal Submission Form).
✅ Transport for the North (TfN) has published its second Strategic Transport Plan (STP) sets the vision, strategic ambitions and the North’s long term strategic transport priorities up to 2050, creating a consistent framework for our work with government, local transport bodies and delivery bodies.
TfN’s new Plan is focused on the outcomes needed for people and places, seeking to better connect communities and businesses with services and opportunities. Read the plan online.
✅ A '5G Immersive Lab' will open in Newcastle’s Eldon Square, offering local firms access to a tech test bed. Read more online.
✅ The Better Business Skills programme - funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority - provides fully funded business skills sessions and mentoring for North of Tyne (Northumberland, North Tyneside and Newcastle) residents.
Their unique approach allows Learners to build their own programme of business skills sessions to boost their skills and knowledge and then access one to one mentoring with an expert Tutor to help them put it all into action.
Sessions include: managing change and process management, NetZero for business, business planning, marketing, and sales, service and the customer experience. Full information and the registration form can be found here.
✅ The North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub has opened the second round of the Community Energy Fund, a national programme designed to help communities develop energy services which benefit their local area.
Community organisations – including sports clubs, faith groups, charities, community interest companies and town or parish councils – have until midnight on 5 May 2024 to apply for up to £140,000 of funding to get their local clean energy and heat projects off the ground.
The Hub is also hosting a webinar on 10 April at 10am to provide an overview of the programme and the funding available. You can sign up to the webinar here.
✅ The British Business Bank has launched the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II). The new £660 million fund will build on the successes of the first round of funding and help hundreds more businesses to achieve their potential and further increase the supply and diversity of early-stage finance by providing options to firms that might otherwise be unable to secure investment. With NPIF II now set to cover the entire North East, NEL Fund Managers (NEL) will provide both smaller loans (£25,000 to £100,000) and debt finance (£100,000 to £2 million) to North East businesses with Maven Capital Partners managing equity deals up to £5 million. Following the launch, the British Business Bank will be hosting a series of roadshow events across the North, arriving at Newcastle United Football Club on 18 April, 9.30am – 12pm. Event details for the Tees Valley will be announced shortly.