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Shared business support environments

Shared business premises and facilities to help businesses develop and grow

Purpose

To facilitate business growth and to create a larger number of sustainable businesses which will positively impact on the highest priorities for developing and strengthening regional economies including disadvantaged areas.

How will this be achieved?

By providing new or existing businesses with cost-effective, managed workspace such as business or science parks, incubation units, and provide access to specialist equipment in which to set-up, test and commercially exploit new ideas. Public sector investment in individual shared business premises will be on a time-limited basis with a clear exit strategy from the outset.

Why offer public sector support?

The intervention will be provided on a regional or local level where there is an identified market failure or equity rationale at this level.

Shared business environments can help provide a supportive environment in which to nurture and grow sustainable businesses (including through access to new ideas and technologies) within the highest priority areas of the relevant economic strategy

What will be offered?

Provide funding to intermediaries to build, operate and manage business premises with shared facilities (which may include technical facilities) and services for groups of new and/or growing businesses. These facilities will be characterised by having flexible tenancy and access arrangements.

Businesses will be able to access, cost-effective supportive shared premises and facilities. The exact range of facilities will depend on the purpose and complexity of the services to be offered (e.g. managed workspace, incubators, specialist equipment, science parks or shared pilot plants).

Best practice, however, would be for each physical entity to have a ‘manager’ to facilitate access to:

• general information, guidance and advice on business support issues, particularly for the start-up businesses provided by Business Link and other providers;
• specialist advice and guidance on defined specialist areas;
• expertise - particularly coaching and mentoring in order to encourage sustainable business growth; and
• encourage collaborations between participating businesses.

Who will be eligible?

To be eligible for tenancy businesses must display entrepreneurial and growth potential and match the purpose of the facility. The target customers are potentially wide and will include start-ups; inward investors; SMEs. In some cases large companies can act as the anchor tenant on a large business/science park but these companies will not receive subsidy. Support will be time-limited by a well defined set of exit criteria.

These developments are typically aimed at start-ups and other young businesses which have a higher probability of failing than an existing business and the need to provide more space for communal areas, or technological or other relevant facilities which reduce the amount of rentable space available to the developer. They can, however, also provide more established SMEs with access to new ideas, technologies and processes

Appraisal will be at the project level using the Treasury Green Book criteria.