| Regional investment
Selective Finance for Investment in England
SFI criteria
All
SFI applications are assessed against the following criteria:
Location
The project must be undertaken within one of the Assisted Areas. If you are not sure whether or not
you are in an Assisted Area, contact your nearest RDA. Do not
complete an application before you are certain the proposed
location of your project is in an eligible area. Assistance for
SMEs is also available in Tier 3 areas - contact your local RDA for details.
Need
Applicants must demonstrate that a grant is necessary to enable
the project to go ahead as planned. This may be to reduce the
risks associated with the project, to influence the choice of a
mobile project’s location or for some other reason. There must
be no prior commitment to the project otherwise there will be
difficulty in establishing a need for assistance. Project
appraisal must have been completed and a formal offer of
assistance issued before the applicant enters into a commitment to
proceed with the project.
Eligible
investment
The project must involve expenditure on fixed assets, such as property, plant and machinery.
Assets can be purchased outright or by finance lease or hire-purchase terms. Some property
leases may also be eligible. Certain costs of a non-recurring nature (patent rights, professional fees)
may also qualify. Your project will be monitored for a minimum of five years through to completion of
the investment and beyond to ensure the conditions of the offer have been met.
Jobs/Skills
The project must create new jobs or safeguard existing employment if you are seeking support of
£100,000 or more. The more your project increases skills and involves investment in the
skills base, the more value will be placed on this criterion when considering support.
Viability
Your project should be viable and help your business become more competitive.
The project will normally be expected to become profitable within three years.
The Quality of your project
It is intended that the majority of support should be focused on high-quality, innovative,
knowledge-based projects that provide skilled jobs. Apart from a small proportion of cases
that have significant employment benefits, the emphasis is on raising productivity and improvement in the skills base.
National and regional benefit
Your
project should contribute positive benefits to both the regional
and national economy.
Other
funding
The greater part of the funding for the project should be met by
the applicant or come from other sources in the private sector eg
bank borrowings, lease finance, equity and loan finance.
Additional public sector assistance may be available but
may have to be cumulated with the SFI grant to ensure the total
value of aid for the project complies with European Commision
regional aid limits.
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