What to expect

The Growth Hub programme operates a Minimum Financial Assistance (MFA) scheme. All SMEs which receive support under this programme are being supported in line with the UK Subsidy Control Act (2022) and The Subsidy Control (Gross Cash Amount and Gross Cash Equivalent) Regulations (2022 No. 1186).

MFA allows a business to receive up to £315,000 of Subsidy, either as a grant or in the form of business support, over a rolling three-tax year fiscal period (i.e., the current and previous two fiscal years). This includes the value of any support previously received under the EU De Minimis aid scheme.

If your business received support under OxLEP’s recently completed European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programmes, eScalate and ISfB, whether through a webinar, workshop, 1:1 support, peer network or a grant, you were supported in line with the EU De Minimis regulation (1407/2013 of 18.12.2014 OJ L351/1 of 24.12.2013).

If you are awarded a grant, the value of the grant is the value of the financial support your business has received. However, if you have received non-financial support in the form of a webinar, workshop, 1:1 support or a peer network, the value of aid is calculated using a Gross Cash Equivalent formula (Gross Grant Equivalent for De Minimis aid). To calculate this, we have sought three quotes from commercial providers to establish how much they would charge an individual company for the support on the open market and used the average of these to calculate the value which this support would cost to purchase privately.

We will provide you with an estimate of the value of the subsidy you could receive in your Growth Hub Business Support Action Plan or on signing up for a webinar or workshop. You will then receive an annual letter summarising the total actual value of the subsidy received in the previous financial year. For 2022-23 this will include any De Minimis aid received under our ERDF programmes. You should keep these letters for at least the same length of time as you may be required to use them to make declarations (i.e. 3 fiscal years).