The Greater Lincolnshire LEP is committed to supporting the local economy to include all businesses, people, investors and stakeholders, and to bringing job security, stabilising economic impacts, and increasing opportunities.

• www.Businesslincolnshire.com is our business support platform offering free adviser consultations, webinars and events, with the latest information, guidance and funding for the business community.

• Businesses can access support whether they are just starting up or are established and growing. Start-up support is provided through specialist organisations, while the Growth Hub adviser team supports an average of 800 established businesses each year with their growth ambitions, from establishing new markets to improving productivity and attracting new methods of finance.

• Register here to receive the news and guidance focused on business support and to follow the latest Government and local interventions available. 

The Greater Lincolnshire LEP continues to work in partnership to plan intelligently and appropriately in response to Covid-19 and is proud to be supporting our businesses and communities through this challenging time. Thanks all of our partners and stakeholders for their continued support. 

Follow us @GreaterLincsLEP, @businesslincs and on LinkedIn.

Simon Bird, Regional Director (Humber) of Associated British Ports and a new Director on the Greater Lincolnshire LEP Board, gives his views on the sector, the significant opportunities, and the contribution towards the Government's levelling up and zero carbon agendas.

• The Business Secretary has recorded a short video message specifically for Humber investments welcoming the recent Budget news.

• The Humber Zero decarbonising industry project has announced £12.5m funding. Watch this one-minute film to see how eight million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year will be safely captured and stored by the mid to late 2020s.

• Simon Bird, Regional Director (Humber) of Associated British Ports and a new Director on the Greater Lincolnshire LEP Board, gives a short introduction to the Humber Freeport opportunities and the impact for the wider area. This is also the video introduction to this newsletter - watch it here.

The Greater Lincolnshire LEP, ABP and other partners are delighted to welcome the Budget announcement that the Humber is among eight areas of England to receive a new freeport, following a highly competitive funding bid.

Our proposal is uniquely placed to deliver on the Government’s agenda to level up and decarbonise our economy, and we expect this opportunity to bring in major investment to our part of the world and lead to over 7,000 new jobs for the Humber.

Download the investment brochure and read more about it here.

The Able Marine Energy Park represents a singular opportunity for the UK to establish a world scale offshore wind industrial cluster and enable the UK to maximise this offshore economic development potential. AMEP is a simple concept responding to the industrial needs of the rapidly developing renewable energy sectors, based on achievable aspirations to transform the local economy and become a facility of international repute.

Offering direct proximity to market, this project offers a strategic location with substantial quays built to accommodate the deployment of large industrial components to the North Sea and beyond, from the heart of the largest offshore wind market in the world. It has also received news of a £76m Government investment via the Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme.

The need for lower carbon supply chains and food trade market concerns in capacity and congestion at the UK’s South East ports has driven the game-changing development of the Port of Boston as a fresh fruit and vegetables hub, feeding directly into the UK’s largest food processing cluster in south Lincolnshire.

Spalding and South Lincolnshire has the largest food logistics cluster in the UK, with 30% of all UK food travelling through the area at some stage in the supply chain, representing over a million vehicle movements a year and over 1,200 full truck-loads of food leaving the area every day.

The Boston Town Deal includes plans for a Centre for Food and Fresh Produce Logistics, bringing a specialist training and innovation centre. This new centre will build on Boston College’s investments in the EMAT (Engineering, Manufacturing and Applied Technologies) Centre, and the Digital, Transport and Logistics Academy (DTLA), as well as the LEP-wide Lincolnshire Institute of Technology, which is focusing on skills development for the food chain and technology sector.  By 2022 there will be a Centre for Food and Fresh Produce Logistics which will form part of the wider south Lincolnshire food knowledge cluster centred on the South Lincolnshire Food Enterprise Zone in Holbeach which was launched on 17th March 2021.

A new border control post in Spalding has already been opened to clear imports by rail, sea and road, specialising in food and development of the South Lincolnshire food cluster. There is a focus on improving rail links, alongside more direct sea freight routes, to help the industry deliver the 2030 ambition of the UK supermarkets for zero carbon supply chains. The Greater Lincolnshire Food Board and UK Food Valley Programme are strongly focused on low-carbon food chains as a major focus for growth, and we have ambitions to lead this nationally. 

The supply of low-carbon energy from sources including our world-leading offshore wind farms, solar, AD (anaerobic digestion) and potentially renewable hydrogen, will enable a medium-term transition to electric vehicle freight services, zero-carbon rail and improved cold storage efficiency, allowing Lincolnshire’s food cluster to deliver the UK’s most efficient and sustainable food chains.

The Humber Zero project at Immingham announced last week that it has secured £12.5million of Government funding which creates an opportunity to develop the Humber region as a centre of excellence for industrial decarbonisation.

It represents a total initial investment of £25 million, and a green light after the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase will lead to a £1.2 billion project investment, enable the deployment of a low-carbon and hydrogen industrial hub, create 2,500 construction jobs and 200 permanent roles, and protect tens of thousands of jobs in the supporting supply chain.

The Humber region produces 40% of the nation’s industrial carbon emissions and Humber Zero will play a significant role in meeting the Government’s 2050 net zero target. This project will develop the carbon capture technology and infrastructure required to capture the CO2 emissions released by the Immingham industrial cluster and export it to a depleted gas reservoir in the North Sea. The project aims to reduce CO2 emissions by up to eight million tonnes per annum by the mid to late 2020s.

To find out more visit www.humberzero.co.uk, follow @HumberZero or watch this two-minute film.

The GAIN project is delivered by the Modal Training Centre on the Humber, delivering maritime, logistics and health and safety training to the sector. The GAIN project enables eligible businesses to access fully funded specialist business advice and consultancy support.
 
The specialist support provided is varied and can include support with HR advice; reviewing processes and improving efficiency; financial advice; and grant/funding information or business planning. 

Leading up to, and post Brexit, logistics businesses have requested additional support with navigating new legislation. The GAIN project has enabled these businesses to receive this specialist advice and support with customs support and information free of charge. Advice and support have ensured that these businesses remained compliant and up to date with the changes in legislation and continued to operate with minimum disruption.

Over the last 12 months, digital marketing has become an increasingly important business tool. The GAIN project has successfully enabled businesses to excel in their response by providing funded digital marketing support with specialist marketing consultants. These have provided digital marketing strategies and website reviews, and provided written content, to improving SEO rankings, and they have offered support and increased skills to access online metrics and advertising to benefit their businesses. Call 01469 428449 or email GAINSupport@modaltraining.co.uk to arrange an initial discussion. Visit www.gainingadvantage.com/ for further information.

Three senior figures from the worlds of business, the military and academia have been appointed to the board of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

Simon Bird from Associated British Ports is joining the LEP’s board of directors as a co-opted director, while Major-General (Retired) Julian Free CBE will become Chair of the Defence Board and a co-opted member of the board of directors, alongside Professor Andrew Hunter from the University of Lincoln, who will become a non-executive director of the LEP board.

The LEP Chair Pat Doody is speaking at the annual Offshore Wind Conference 2021 (OWC2021) on 21st and 22nd April.  This event is for all those interested in the rapidly growing offshore wind sector in the North Sea and beyond and is presented by Team Humber Marine Alliance in partnership with Aura and hosted in the virtual Aura Innovation Centre (AIC).  Register here to hear his summary of the funding and opportunity for the south Humber bank ports and offshore recent announcements.

The Industrial Debarbonisation Webinar on 1st April is hosted by Team Lincolnshire, in partnership with Business Lincolnshire, and focusing on North and North East Lincolnshire. This is an opportunity to discover more about the Humber Cluster Plan - a route to Net Zero, and Humber Zero, an industrial decarbonisation project highlighted in this edition. The webinar will include an overview on the energy and renewable sectors in the region, followed by a panel discussion. Register here to take part.

Modal Training is hosting a free webinar on Thursday 15th April at 2pm entitled Becoming a Self Employed Haulage Driver/ Owner.

Register for your place here.

In this webinar, delegates will be guided through gaining a qualification and how to go about becoming a self-employed lorry driver based on using own vehicles, where the drivers are self-employed and driving their own vehicles. It will include: how to get a licence; vehicle costs and the ways to purchase vehicles to become a self-contained business; how to stay in good repute with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA); tachographs and maintenance schedules; ‘O’ Licence and the need for transport managers; and where to park the vehicle.

Look out for a webinar next month on ports opportunities by checking this page. 

South Humber Industrial Investment Programme
The South Humber Industrial Investment Programme is a major 15-year programme of investment that will enable large-scale economic growth. It is creating a substantial new industrial infrastructure to support the major south Humber ports and will reduce environmental constraints by releasing the potential of high-quality development land for employment between the Ports of Immingham and Grimsby. Click here to read about the project.

Digital Logistics & Transport Academy
Led by Boston College, the development of a Digital Transport and Logistics Academy (pictured) in conjunction with Network Rail and other partners is creating an innovative multi-functional national training centre in Greater Lincolnshire. This will focus on developing port skills; crane operations; construction plant, including forklift truck skills; steel erecting; stevedoring; leadership and management as well as improving digital skills at all levels to support further innovation in the sector. A suite of apprenticeships is also being developed with leading contractors, upskilling our workforce to be able to support major infrastructure projects across the region.  Click here for more detail about the project.

Peppermint Interchange Holbeach
This strategically important gateway has been created to support the development of the Food Enterprise Zone, opening up development land for investment and enabling housing provision. This investment scheme will enable large-scale economic growth for the rural area of Holbeach which sits at the centre of the booming food industry. The scheme, now completed, has opened up business growth opportunities in the vicinity and improves infrastructure that is heavily relied upon by the agri-food sector and its associated supply chain of businesses located in South Holland. Click here to find out more or visit the newly launched www.southlincolnshirefez.co.uk website.

The Midlands Engine has released its latest economic monitoring report which is available to download here.

Key findings include:
• How businesses have been coping with the latest lockdown
• The renewed optimism amongst our region's employers for the future now that the vaccine programme is in full swing
• Why a report from the Centre for Cities suggests that the UK will make a quick recovery from the current recession
• Plus all the latest intelligence from our region.

The SeasonalJobs platform was created when the pandemic took hold as a response to the high-priority need for skilled seasonal workers within the fresh produce sector. It runs via an app with a supporting website which matches job seekers with labour users in the industry, providing employers with pre-screened, ready-to-work candidates for all seasonal positions in a number of industries.

SeasonalJobs runs social media campaigns to secure workers with exactly the right fit, focusing on industry requirements such as fitness level, experience, availability, and location.

With no cost to the job seeker, each employer-user pays a fee of £100 per candidate on acceptance of a role, and enables them to post vacant roles to interview and select available workers. This fee supports the ongoing development of the app functionality and UX interface.

To book a demo or for more information for employers or seasonal job seekers, access the Greater Lincolnshire LEP’s Twitter account and quote #LEPSeasonalJobs when booking your free demo.

To find out more, please visit www.seasonaljobs.io