Sector Support Fund

The project focuses on Avis Way, which is a key industrial estate in the Newhaven Enterprise Zone. The Project will work in three ways, each directly responding to the coastal communities and growth hub agenda, whilst also indirectly delivering against infrastructure, skills and social enterprise.

To contribute towards covering the cost of anticipated total design stage costs of £260,000 for the development of an Innovation Centre on Kent Medical Campus Enterprise Zone.

The 2,787sq m (30,000 sq ft.) Innovation Centre will offer SMEs focused on life science, healthcare and med-tech activities access to a combination of high-grade office accommodation and business support providing a nurturing environment for start-ups and growing businesses.

The North Kent Enterprise Zone (NKEZ) was designated by Government in Autumn 2015 and came into operation on 1 April 2017. It is one of four Enterprise Zones in which SELEP has an interest.

As a nationally designated Enterprise Zone, NKEZ is a priority initiative for SELEP. Whilst it operates within a specific sub-regional geography, its impact will potentially benefit SELEP as a whole as a catalyst for enterprise and growth in the Thames Gateway/Estuary area.

SEED will address known export barriers (lack of international contacts and export knowledge/capacity) through an innovative support programme aimed at SELEP-based companies (product and service-based ‘new-to-export’ companies and existing exporters) in 3 priority sectors with export potential:

• Health & Life Sciences (including medical devices / technology, (e-)health, pharma, diagnostics)
• Food & Drink (including manufacturers, processing, suppliers to the industry e.g. packaging).
• Digital & Creative (including software solutions, apps, web services)

The project focuses on carbon sequestration (the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere), where there is significant demand but fragmented supply.​

Carbon Pathway (C-Path) is a dynamic cloud-based resource that would be used to design, facilitate, accelerate and monitor investment in the LCREE, in partnership with and accessible to public and private bodies across the SELEP region.

The Energy and Clean Growth – Supply Chain Mapping project seeks to provide a SELEP wide assessment of opportunities within the emerging local energy and clean growth sector. The project will undertake an in-depth analysis of the supply chain for the local energy and clean growth sector and will refresh and build upon the now out of date analysis of the Low Carbon Environmental Goods and Services sector that was undertaken in 2012.

This project is intended to prepare a coastal supplement to the revised Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), to act as an investment prospectus that will articulate the economic opportunities and priorities specific to coastal areas and make a strategic case for investment, based on an evidence-led approach that demonstrates the potential economic outcomes, benefits and the comparative costs of investing on the coast compared to areas of the region better connected to transport and economic infrastructures.

The project will create an innovative new immersive visitor experience driven by world class art, which aims to build the volume and value of visitors to the South East.

Gourmet Garden Trails is a Discover England Fund funded project to launch a series of tourist trails showcasing England’s beautiful gardens and unique food and drink. The project will target visitors from Germany and The Netherlands and take them on a sensory journey around different parts of the country as they explore new tourist trails through both famous and little-known gardens and gourmet sites across rural England.

This project has previously received SSF and delivered a successful project. However, in the light of COVID-19, Visit England has released additional funding to adapt existing projects to focus on the domestic market to drive recovery of the visitor economy. This offers the chance to carry on and add to the previous good work.

COVID-19 has heavily impacted the visitor economy, with a huge dropped forecast compared to 2019. Therefore, targeted support is needed to help businesses survive the winter, protect jobs and support a sustained recovery. This requires support over and above business as usual as the market will be competitive with destinations from across the country targeting the same pool of visitors to aid recovery in their areas. The emerging economy recovery plans across the SELEP region all identify that visitor economy as a sector mostly badly affected by COVID-19.

The Food and Drink sector has become increasingly important on the regional government agenda in recent years, with food tourism growing in the South East. British food (Buy British) has become hugely popular in and outside the UK, with customers growing more environmentally aware. There is a shift toward local and sustainable food.​

This project aims to unlock one of the biggest barriers and bottlenecks to skills training and jobs growth. It will serve as a pilot and test case which would have national application and as such would clearly offer even greater value for money.

The Delivering Skills for the Future SSF project was approved in April 2019 and sought to address the widespread shortage of tutors, teachers and trainers across the SELEP area which was highlighted in the SELEP Skills Strategy. The project has proved to be very successful and therefore an extension to the project has been agreed.

This project will scope, plan and prioritise the future rural skills, training and business support needs and will strategically tackle the conundrum of shortages in high and low skills and in careers pipelines.

This pan-LEP project will support growers, processors, retailers, food businesses and new entrants to raise awareness of the opportunities available within the sector to develop and enhance their businesses thereby adding both volume and value to the sector.

The Catalyst for Culture Programmeis a new partnership between established performing arts institutions of national and international standing in the SELEP region, providing live and on-line theatre experiences for audiences throughout Kent, Medway, Thurrock, Southend, East Sussex, South Essex and Essex during the COVID crisis, and supporting the creative, production and technical workforce, artists & freelancers across the SELEP region.

The SELEP Creative Open Workspace Masterplan and Prospectus project drives growth, innovation and prosperity by supporting the workspace needs of one of the fastest growing sectors – the creative industries.

The project will seek to create a radically different financial product (FP) used to accelerate the delivery of housing developments which are future proofed for 2050. It will help overcome the following barriers to housing delivery highlighted by the Letwin Review, by taking a long term approach to development finance.