Strategic Investment Fund

Lorely Burt
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many applications have been (a) received and (b) granted for funding from the Strategic Investment Fund in each month since April 2009;

(2) how many applications have been (a) received and (b) granted for the funding from the £50 million portion of the Strategic Investment Fund allocated to support business innovation to date;

(3) how many applications have been (a) received and (b) granted for the funding from the £250 million portion of the Strategic Investment Fund allocated to support renewable energy projects and low-carbon business opportunities to date;

(4) how much and what proportion of funding available from the Strategic Investment Fund has been distributed since April 2009;

(5) how much of the portion of the Strategic Investment Fund allocated for business innovation support has been distributed since April 2009;

(6) how much of the portion of the Strategic Investment Fund allocated to support renewable energy projects and low-carbon business opportunities has been distributed since April 2009.

Mr. McFadden
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: Over £720 million of the £750 million within the Strategic Investment Fund has already been allocated, or is earmarked for specific projects and investments. The SIF is not a fund that is open directly to companies. It is a resource that the Government are using to increase investment through existing measures—like collaborative Research and Development grants, Launch Investment for aerospace and regional Grants for Business Investment—as well as new measures such as the UK Innovation Investment Fund. Our extra support for business is delivered through these measures, not directly from the SIF. Businesses do not therefore make applications for funding from the SIF, nor do they receive funding directly from it.

We expect to spend about £200 million of the SIF by the end of this current financial year. By way of example of the projects supported, in the area of business innovation, the Technology Strategy Board has used £50 million of additional funding from the SIF to expand the scale of its ambition for a number of activities. For example, funding from the SIF, supplemented by its core funding, has been committed to projects funded under the £25 million Low Carbon Vehicle demonstrator programme. Calls worth £6 million for research have also recently opened in the area of ‘Regenerative Medicine’, ‘High Value Manufacturing’ and ‘Enabling Technologies for the Internet, Applications and Services’ utilising SIF funds.

The Department has published an update on the Strategic Investment Fund, and copies will be placed in the Libraries of the House.