Buckinghamshire LEP reallocates £5.79 million of Getting Building Funds to deliver economic growth

Published by

Nicky Godding

Following the approval from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) and Bucks LEP Board, Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (Bucks LEP) has reallocated £5.79 million of Getting Building Funds to further support economic growth in the county.

Following a review of its Getting Building Fund programme at the end of 2020, Bucks LEP invited expressions of interest for new projects to ensure that its grant is fully committed to deliver projects by March 2022 and supports its Local Industrial Strategy and Buckinghamshire Economic Recovery Plan.

Following MHCLG approval this month, Bucks LEP is reallocating £5.79 million of Getting Building Funds to the following projects:

Innovation Ecosystem at Westcott (£2,609,530)
TESTA – Novel Test Facility at Westcott (£250,000)
Bucks Operator Skills Hub (£750,000)
Centre of Excellence for Rocket Engine and Flow Tests Facility (£740,000)
East West Rail-Fibre Provision Upgrade (£643,000)
LUNAZ Applied Technologies (£250,000)
Bucks Rural Broadband Voucher Top Up (£300,000)
Advanced Braking Facility (£247,470)

This LEP says that this investment will create hundreds of new jobs and opportunities for training and provide facilities for education and space for new businesses to develop their ideas.

Sam Green, Operations Director at space propulsion business European Astrotech Limited, said: European Astrotech are proud to be recipients of Getting Building Funding, which will support the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Rocket Engine and Satellite Propulsion Flow Testing Facility at Westcott, which allow quick turnaround testing of Liquid Rocket Engine assemblies in their development stage and to provide satellite manufactures access to flow and priming testing of sub-systems with all know liquid rocket propellants.

“With no such facility available in Europe that can accommodate quick turnaround testing, the new facility will complement the National Rocket Engine Test Facility at Westcott. This investment by Bucks LEP will strengthen our competitive advantage and opens up the next stage in the evolution of the Westcott site to attract new business and investment to this world-class centre of excellence in space propulsion.

This reallocation Getting Building Funds builds on the previous allocation of funding in August 2020 of £7.7m for keys projects including the Westcott Disruptive Innovative Space Centre (DISC) and the Rural Broadband Programme - Remote Access Rapid Expansion.

Andrew M. Smith, Chair of Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “I am delighted by the speed at which our call for ‘shovel-ready’ projects in Buckinghamshire brought forward a number of high-calibre schemes with the capacity to kick-start growth in the county. This is testament to Buckinghamshire’s resilience and agility.”

Chris Hebert, Engineering Director at D2H Advanced Technologies, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership has chosen to support D2H Advanced Technologies’ innovative and pioneering work in brake testing and research through their Getting Building Fund programme. Such grant funding will be instrumental in helping us deliver a market leading service for the mobility sector.”

This funding will drive the economic recovery and support continued delivery of Buckinghamshire’s Local Industrial Strategy and growth within our four key sectors, Upstream Space, Creative and Digital, Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing and Medical Technology and Health.

Buckinghamshire is a significant wealth generator for the UK economy, and the commitment of more than £73 million in funding is enabling the delivery of new road and rail infrastructure, better skills and business opportunities and enhancing digital connectivity to support sustainable economic growth in Bucks

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.