Consultants are invited to tender for a contract to help five Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the East and South East Midlands finalise their decision on a Financial Instrument, which will best meet the needs of businesses in their area.
The five East and South East Midlands LEPs – of
– each manage funding through the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) 2014-2020 Programme.
The European Commission’s target is to double the amount of current Programme expenditure being invested in financial instruments, compared to the 2007-2013 ESIF Programme, in order to create recyclable and sustainable funds, which will make investment in businesses and ESIF funding go further.
The five East and South East Midlands LEPs have identified a number of ways in which this might be done in their area.
They now want to procure additional expertise, to help finalise their decision on an option which will best provide an effective and flexible financial solution, to meet small and medium-sized businesses’ needs across the East and South East Midlands LEP area. The financial instrument developed should ensure ‘best fit’ but still provide sufficient flexibility to incorporate market differences and achieve impact.
It is expected the solution will be in the form of a detailed model incorporating fund design, fund delivery, management and governance arrangements, and sufficiently robust to allow the LEPs to subsequently engage in a ‘Block 2 Ex-Ante Assessment’ process. Early implementation of the solution is also important.
Please see the full tender documents by clicking here
The deadline to make submissions of tender is Thursday August 13 (2015). Please send an electronic version only to email: ellen.withey@semlep.com and to discuss the tender further please contact Gayle Pope on 01234 436100.
