In 2019 AMION completed a summative assessment of the Business Growth Programme (BGP) for Birmingham City Council. The programme received £16 million of funding from ERDF.
The BGP provided grants of up to £167,000 to SMEs in the Greater Birmingham & Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire and The Marches LEP areas. Grants were provided through four strands: HS2 Supply Chain Programme; Green Bridge Supply Chain Programme; Business Innovation Programme; and Business Development Programme.
The evaluation included a telephone survey of beneficiaries (carried out by Spirul), consultations with partners and case studies of 10 beneficiaries.
We carried out analysis for the programme as a whole, by LEP area, by grant size and by type of area (more developed and transitional).
Our evaluation showed that the programme had delivered substantial economic benefits, with these expected to become even more significant in the long-term. The evaluation also found that the impact per grant was stronger in transitional areas than in more developed areas.