Grant for Business Investment (GBI)

Part of the Solutions for Business portfolio of publicly funded business support

Formerly titled Selective Finance for Investment in England (SFIE), GBI is a form of financial assistance available to businesses located in Assisted Areas in England  to support their expansion, modernisation, rationalisation and diversification of such businesses.

The amount of assistance which may be available from Advantage West Midlands ranges from £10,000 to £1,999,999.  Applications for grants for £2 million and above are handled directly by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) formerly BERR.

Assisted Areas

The Assisted Areas map changed from 1 January 2007. The limits on assistance as a percentage of capital expenditure changed then and recently the limits outside the Assisted Areas for support to Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) in Tier 3 have increased (see box below).

In Tier 2 areas (which comprise parts of Birmingham, the Black Country, Coventry and North Staffordshire) GBI is available to any size of business, subject to meeting the eligibility criteria.

A limited number of wards in Bromsgrove, Solihull and South Staffordshire are also included in Tier 2.

A map - DOC - 868kb of the new Tier 2 Area and a list (Opens in new window) - DOC - 192kb of the wards included are available in the "Related documents" section of this page or a postcode checker (Opens in new window) is available to check a specific location.

In Tier 3 Areas (which comprise the whole region excluding the Tier 2 wards) GBI is only available to SMEs (Opens in new window).

GBI grant is restricted to 20% of eligible expenditure for small enterprises (below 50 employees) and 10% for medium sized ones (below 250 employees).

The previous limit of £100,000 on the total amount that could be offered to a single SME, has been removed for applications from 1 October 2008.

GBI eligibility criteria

A project will be considered for GBI if:

• It is located in an Assisted Area (note that the whole region is an Assisted Area for SMEs)

• The project requires GBI to make it happen, or without GBI the project would only go ahead on a smaller scale, or within a longer timeframe

• It involves capital expenditure

• It creates new jobs or safeguards existing ones which would otherwise be put at risk (note that this requirement may be waived for grants of less than £100,000)

• A majority of the jobs created or safeguarded require qualifications of level 2 NVQ (or equivalent) or above

• It will secure increased productivity

• The business is viable and can become self sustaining within a reasonable timeframe (for example three years)

• It generates regional and national benefits, in line with the West Midlands Economic Strategy

• The bulk of the finance for the project will come from private sources (such as bank finance or retained earnings).

Limits on GBI

Subject to meeting the criteria set out above, GBI grant  will be the minimum required to enable the project to proceed. In addition:

• GBI grants cannot be less than £10,000

• % maximum limits on GBI grant are as follows:

Eligible Expenditure

Eligible expenditure against which these percentage limits are applied comprises either:

• the cost of the tangible or intangible assets directly relating to the investment project; or

• the wage and salary costs of the employees who fill the jobs created, calculated over a two year period; or

• in Tier 2 areas only, a combination of both, provided that the grant does not exceed the most favourable amount resulting from the application of either calculation.

In the case of a grant based on the wage and salary costs of jobs created, the jobs must be created within 3 years of the completion of the investment project and must be maintained for a minimum period of 5 years after completion of the investment project in the case of a large enterprise and 3 years in the case of a SME.

Application process

Applications should be submitted on standard forms both as hard copy and electronic documents to:

Phil Baron
Advantage West Midlands
3 Priestley Wharf
Holt Street
Birmingham B7 4BN

The application form and the financial appendices which have to accompany an application are available to download from this website (see related documents). We aim to give a decision on complete applications within 30 days of receipt of a complete application, although more complex and larger cases can take longer.