Small companies to benefit from £125m windfall

Date: 10th October 2008

Business start-ups in one British region could be set for a £125 million cash injection to help them beat the economic downturn.

Financial experts from one of the UK's major regional development agencies is currently in discussions with the European Regional Development Fund and European Investment Bank over the rescue package.

Officials from One NorthEast will spend the next 15 months preparing for the project, known as Jeremie, and are aiming to make a further announcement by the end of 2009.

Malcolm Page, deputy chief executive of One NorthEast, said: "Jeremie is an exciting project but there is still a huge amount of collaborative work to complete with the government, the European Commission and European Investment Bank

"In ten years time we will hopefully have investment funds available for regional SMEs to continue the good work."

In the past few years, small companies in the north-east of England have benefited from the £23 million North-East Co-Investment Fund and the £10 million North-East Proof of Concept Fund.