Have you got ideas to grow your business or develop a new product, but not quite enough money, expertise or resources to make it happen?

The University of Brighton’s Green Growth Platform is working with East Sussex County Council on LoCASE Business Grant programme, which offers local businesses money to help them grow.

Businesses can get a 40 percent contribution towards a project to grow their business, up to a maximum of £10,000.

The money is available to any small to medium sized businesses that helps its customers do their bit for the environment. That can include:

• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Environmental consultants
• Renewable energy specialists
• Landscaping and tree surgeons
• Recycling and waste management firms.
• Building technologies
• Architects designed low carbon buildings
• Building firms installing energy saving technologies such as insulation or double glazing.

Businesses can put together a shopping list of items to spend the grant on, including:

• Marketing
• Website
• IT, software & phone systems
• Tools & equipment
• Plant, machinery & facilities hire
• Consultancy
• Product development
• Energy efficiency upgrades

The money is limited and already £250,000 has been awarded to local businesses. Don’t miss out contact:

greengrowthplatform@brighton.ac.uk

Tel: 01273 641949

Website: www.greengorthplatform.co.uk and go to the LoCASE pages.

Read more about business funding opportunities.

Read more about Cooden Consulting.

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Brighton: A Sussex City developing creative & tech businesses

The South-East coast of England has proven to attract businesses within the creative sector over the last few years, to the point where Brighton has ranked 6^th highest in the UK for number of creative businesses in the Travel to Work Area (TTWA).

Industrial clustering occurs when many companies from a certain sector locate to the same place. This generates a networking ground for where these companies can easily share information and institutions can support the growth of the industry in that location. This can be enormously beneficial to the region as it can generate new jobs through the injection of a variety of workers with differing skillsets.

As previously mentioned, Brighton’s entrepreneurship is flourishing, particularly in the creative tech sectors such as digital design and gaming.  Brighton was listed in the Centre for Cities 2015 Outlook as having the highest number of start-ups per capita outside of London with many of these being tech-related.  Brighton’s perfect blend of the creative with the digital has generated an air of confidence from innovative entrepreneurs in the area that are willing to take new risks and persevere to establish truly unique and competitive businesses.

There is a true sense of community within the creative tech sector in Brighton with local businesses collaborating with one another as well as working closely with local universities, giving the region a strong competitive edge.

Same sector enterprises that collect in the same geographical location quickly begin to see the perks of operating in the same location for networking when they establish informal business relations through social networking. More importantly these businesses begin to reap these benefits when they establish more formal relationships through supplying and buying from one another and collaborating on Research and Development (R&D) projects.

Research and Development plays an instrumental role in the success of many businesses, particularly those within the creative sector.  Huge amounts of money go unclaimed by businesses every year either through missing opportunities to claim, or underclaims for R&D Tax Relief. R&D Tax Relief exists to encourage businesses to invest in R&D spending with the aim of supporting a company’s investment in innovation.  If a company is liable for Corporation Tax, they could be claiming the Tax Relief which will significantly reduce their tax bill by a percentage of their allowable R&D expenditure. If, however their innovation spend has created a tax loss, the company can surrender the losses arising from their R&D Spend for an R&D Tax Credit. The Tax Credit is given in the form of cash by HM Revenue & Customs, fancy that.

Contact our team of Research and Development Tax Relief specialists today and see how much Cooden Tax Consulting could be saving your company in R&D tax relief.

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