Community groups and businesses in Angus have been told “money is out there” despite the uncertainty over Brexit.
Economic development spokeswoman Lynne Devine said the council is working very hard to support businesses and encourage more companies into Angus.
She is encouraging firms to sign up to the Business Angus e-newsletter where they will get information on funding, events and case studies.
Councillor Devine said: “LEADER funding has thankfully been guaranteed by the Scottish Government through to 2020 and it is good to see rural businesses coming forward for that with the change of criteria.
“After 2020 goodness knows what will happen to European funding but up until then please encourage people — either community groups or businesses — to ask our external funders for advice.
“There is money out there — both European and other — and can be accessed for council use as well.”
The Forfar SNP member said the industry sectors are all working very closely with their respective companies and responding to what they say they need in terms of advice and support.
“Business Angus organises breakfast and sometimes lunch workshops to bring people together on specific issues,” she said.
“The latest one I was at was attended by 40 companies and organisations within tourism and lots of links were made between accommodation providers and tourist attractions.
“One of the main things that came out of it was the need to ‘beef up’ people’s knowledge of Angus both nationally and internationally.”
She also highlighted the “very successful” funding attracted recently including 533,000 euros which was the county’s slice of a cross-country bid.
Angus Council in partnership with Groningen municipality, Aalborg, Suffolk County Council, Province of Drenthe, Vechta University, Vechta municipality, Rotterdam municipality and Roeselare municipality were successful in securing €4,251,964 towards the ‘Like! Building a Local Digital Innovation Culture’ INTERREG programme.
Like! will significantly enhance the capacity of the public sector to facilitate and deliver innovation and result in the development of a wide range of services with innovative solutions for improved public service delivery.
Local governments, citizens, universities and SMEs will come together to co-create smarter, more efficient and more innovative services through nine transnational pilots.
