New national funding has been launched to help businesses in the UK’s rail sector supply chain, as well as new businesses wishing to enter the growing sector. Both existing and new suppliers could benefit from the funding, which will provide access to flexible finance enabling them to significantly increase their productivity and capabilities.

The national Rail Supply Growth Fund (RSGF) was recently announced alongside the launch of the Rail Supply Group (RSG) strategy by the Departments for Transport and Business Innovation and Skills.

The £20m RSGF initiative has been launched by Finance Birmingham and supports the aims of the RSG by helping businesses nationally take advantage of the expansion and modernisation of the country’s rail network.

A strong supply chain to the rail sector is essential for the government’s plan for a quality high speed rail network for the UK. As a result the supply chain will benefit from this substantial investment programme with the aim of creating new opportunities to aid market growth.

The funding will give companies access to affordable finance, offering loans of £0.5m to £2m, in particular to businesses in need of funding towards capital, new capital expenditure and product launches.

The initiative follows on from the success of the national Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, which was also delivered by Finance Birmingham.

Chief executive of Finance Birmingham, Sue Summers, said: “The rail supply sector needs to grow in order to meet the demands of an increasing number of rail projects here in the UK such as Crossrail and HS2, and globally.

“The fund has been set up to help those businesses out there that might already be part of the rail sector supply but also to those that will be new to rail.

We have a strong track record of helping businesses across many different sectors regionally and nationally. We are really pleased to play a part in building the railways of the future by providing a new source of funding to build an innovative and responsive supply chain.”

For further information on the Rail Supply Growth Fund please visit http://www.financebirmingham.com/railsupplygrowthfund/ or visit the Publications section of our website.