£23m bid to boost enterprise

Rochdale Council has joined forces with Oldham Council to bid for £23M over three years to boost enterprise across both boroughs. The Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) was announced by the Chancellor in his 2005 Budget and is worth £300m for the first 3 years. Rochdale and Oldham are amongst 76 local authorities invited to bid in a very competitive process which saw only one authority in the North West win funding in the previous round of bidding.

The aim of LEGI is to boost local incomes and employment opportunities in the most deprived areas through enterprise and investment. The Oldham and Rochdale bid named RO:SE (Rochdale and Oldham Supporting Enterprise) has been developed over the last six months and has involved extensive consultation with new and established businesses, those thinking of starting a businesses, business support organisations and schools and colleges.

The projects in the bid have been designed to help overcome barriers to starting or growing a business that have been identified by businesses themselves. In addition, the new business opportunities that will be created at Kingsway Business Park have helped shape the proposals.

Proposals in the RO:SE bid include projects to:

• Promote a culture of enterprise through working with primary and secondary schools and in local communities.
• Increase business start-up rates, particularly in areas with low enterprise activity and employment rates.
• Co-ordinate all business support activity through a one-stop-shop.
• Help local businesses win new business from the public sector and from new investment coming into the region such as the BBC relocation to Salford and new inward investment at Kingsway.
• Maximise the local employment benefit from growing businesses and new investors by ensuring local residents are 'job ready'.

Councillor Mohammad Sharif, Rochdale Council's Lead Member for Regeneration said, "The RO:SE bid presents a unique opportunity to significantly improve Rochdale's economic performance and kick start new enterprise activity to benefit our priority neighbourhoods. I believe that Rochdale and Oldham are submitting an excellent bid for this exciting and challenging work and look forward to working with our colleagues in Oldham should it be successful".

The bid will be assessed by a regional and then national panel and the outcome should be known in December.