Match-funded grants are available to help businesses increase productivity and create new jobs.

Match-funded grants of between £150,000 and £500,000 are available to help Greater Lincolnshire businesses increase productivity and create new jobs.

Among the first businesses to benefit from the LEP’s Greater Lincolnshire Growth Fund is agricultural handling equipment manufacturer Tong Engineering, which has started building a new factory in Spilsby thanks to a £500,000 grant.

The factory is being built on a seven-acre site near the Vale Road Industrial Estate in Spilsby, and the £3.6 million first phase building is expected to be finished by spring 2020.

The fourth-generation family business currently operates across two sites in Spilsby and Wainfleet in Lincolnshire. On completion of the phase one build, all production will take place in Spilsby, enabling Tong Engineering to progress with its ambitious growth targets while creating 26 new jobs.

Chairman Charles Tong said: “With the support of the Greater Lincolnshire Growth Fund and East Lindsey District Council we are very pleased that we can finally break ground on a new factory. The project will help us to maintain the most advanced engineering practices, and at the same time we’re creating jobs, boosting economic growth in Lincolnshire and working with local building contractors and services throughout the project.”

Ursula Lidbetter OBE, Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP, commented: “Tong Engineering is a successful and well established Lincolnshire business and we are pleased to be able to support their growth ambitions with this grant.

“As an agricultural business Tong operates in one of the key sectors which we aim to support through the Greater Lincolnshire Growth Fund.

“We look forward to the completion of the company’s new factory, which we hope will create new jobs in East Lindsey and help Tong Engineering to grow.”

To find out if your business is eligible for a grant from the Greater Lincolnshire Growth Fund, email growthfund@greenborough.com, call 01522 837269 or visit the website.