Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced today that BCRS has secured more than £12 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.
The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is a £2.4bn fund operating across England from 2011 to 2015. It supports projects and programmes that lever private sector investment to create economic growth and sustainable employment.
The funding has been allocated to the Community Development Finance Association (CDFA). It is made up of £30m from the government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) which has been matched by the Co-operative Bank and Unity Trust Bank.
The funding is expected to create or safeguard over 8,000 jobs over six years and meet some of the growing demand from small businesses for access to finance.
Following the successful bid led by the Community Development Finance Association (CDFA) the fund will allow BCRS to advance business loans from £10,000 to £100,000 to small and medium sized companies.
BCRS was founded as the Black Country Reinvestment Society in 2002 as a Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) to assist small businesses to grow and prosper by providing access to finance to those that are unable to get loans from traditional sources such as banks.
Paul Kalinauckas, Chief Executive at BCRS said; “It is fantastic news to hear that BCRS will continue to have the opportunity to support local companies thanks to RGF and even more so that we can now lend up £100,000. Businesses in the region need a Government that is on their side doing everything it can to get them through the downturn. They also need to know that institutions such as BCRS are already delivering real support and real money when the mainstream lenders cannot help.
“Our sole purpose at BCRS is to provide access to finance to enable local businesses to grow and prosper and with this additional funding we will continue to do so. It is predicted that there is still going to be a finance gap for small businesses seeking funding for at least the next five years. The Government has recognised the risks involved in relying on bank lending as the sole source of finance and I am confident that we will have no problem lending out this latest allocation of funding,” concludes Paul.
