Good Growth Fund

Update from the Breakfast Briefing

The Good Growth Fund was the subject of our first Truro Breakfast Briefing of 2023. It is Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s share of the UK Prosperity Fund. The event was extremely well attended by over 60 people from the Cornish businesses.

Intro to the Good Growth Fund 

1.  The total pot of funds is in excess of £132m for 3 years ended 31 March 2025
2.  The funding is being delivered through a combination of:
   • Direct interventions
   • A rolling programme of Funding Opportunities administered by Cornwall Council
   • Delegated schemes e.g., Good Growth Hub Grant Scheme
3.  The scheme is still in its early days
4.  There is support available for potential applicants
5.  It is essential that potential applicants read the available guidance first

The full slide deck from the event is available here: Breakfast Briefing – Good Growth Fund

It’s early days

I get the feeling that people are still finding their way with the fund and its flexibility in terms of types of projects that can be supported and targeted outputs etc. This may initially be a negative, in terms of lack of clarity to potential applicants. But in time, with a range of case studies to draw on, this flexibility will I am sure be a positive.

I was particularly impressed with James Glover and Amanda Jones from the fund and pleased to hear that they are part of a team fielding queries on eligibility, fit of projects with specific funding interventions.

The Good Growth Fund is not only for big projects

One interesting aspect of the Good Growth Fund is that the designated schemes e.g. Good Growth Hub Grant Scheme, are likely to have lower minimum grant sizes than those administered direct by Cornwall Council.

Next steps

The Good Growth website contains a wealth of information about the scheme and, as indicated above, the Good Growth team will be expecting potential applicants to have read through this material before they are approached.

Here are details of how to apply to the Good Growth Fund, including example application forms.

Over the next few months we anticipate being involved in a number of applications to the Good Growth Fund. This will complement our general experience assisting with grant applications over a number of years and interacting with a number of different grant schemes) with specific knowledge of Good Growth Fund. If you have any questions on this please do not hesitate to contact, Richard Wadman, Corporate Finance Director.

By Jake Friend