We've had a great start to the year here in Oxfordshire with the announcement of two important pieces of new investment to help boost the county's economy.

First, we'll be receiving £24.16 million from the government's Local Growth Fund; this is on top of the £174 million of City Deal and LGF funding we've already secured for Oxfordshire. 

This new investment will enable us to support multiple projects to benefit local people and businesses. Our key focus will be on developing skills to meet the needs of employers, building on Oxfordshire’s strengths in research and development, and opening up new commercial development opportunities.

Then there’s also a new £2.5 million fund which was launched in February to help grow Oxfordshire's rural businesses and generate jobs in rural communities. If you're a rural business owner interested in accessing EAFRD*funding, find out more here.

This brings the total challenge funding secured for Oxfordshire to date to £198 million.

Our  Business Support team, the Growth Hub for Oxfordshire, is working hard on an exciting new programme of grants**, free workshops and advice for start-ups and growing businesses, which will be announced soon. The team helps companies of all shapes and sizes to navigate around the complicated business support landscape, and find the support they need.

If your business has been running for 12 months or more, the team of Network Navigators is there to help, through face-to-face meetings to give you expert advice on how to grow your business. There are also growth grants available for businesses with robust growth and job creation plans, as well as dedicated free workshops to provide training on a variety of core business skills to support your company.

If you’ve got an idea for a new business or if you’re running a start-up businesses (trading for less than 12 months), the start-up package could be just what you need. This offers one-to-one meetings with an OBS Advisor, who will help you map out your support needs. You can also apply for start-up grants (a minimum of a £1,000 and a maximum of £5,000) and make use of free workshops focussed around helping you launch and establish your business.

In addition to these exciting funding announcements, the early part 2017 has already seen some great progress in some of our key projects too, which will benefit businesses and residents alike. Earlier this month we brought together hundreds of young people from across the county with 50 employers and training organisations at our eighth annual Careers Fest at MINI Plant Oxford. The event highlighted a diverse range of career opportunities for Oxfordshire's future workforce. Harwell Link Road works are also well underway, a project which will improve commutes for workers in and around Harwell, as well as for people living in the area.

We're looking forward to more good news for Oxfordshire as the year progresses.

Nigel Tipple, Chief Executive, Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership

*European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development

**European Regional Development Fund

The project has received £2 million of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund.

 Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.