THE Government has been asked to help set up a new North-East small business bank aimed at creating jobs and stimulating growth.

The proposed Tees Valley Business Loan Fund would offer sums from £15,000 to £150,000 to smaller businesses that are struggling to secure backing from high street lenders.

It aims to help up to 517 companies during the period 2013 to 2023 and safeguard or create 3,254 jobs.

The innovative plan wants £10m – which will be matched by £30m from private investors – from the Government’s flagship enterprise fund.

It is one of several bids from organisations across the region to grab a share of the £1bn fund that aims to create jobs in areas hit hardest by austerity measures.

In total, Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU), the Local Enterprise Partnership, submitted 15 applications for a total of £68m.

They comprise four bids from the chemical process industry, three from the renewable energy sector, four from advanced manufacturing and engineering, two projects from logistics companies and another from the creative and leisure industry.

Additionally, an application for £5.9m was made to transform the fortunes of lossmaking Durham Tees Valley Airport and generate 1,500 jobs.

A private sector application is being made to set up a new Tees Valley Business Enhanced Apprenticeship Programme covering a range of industries, including the manufacturing, chemical process and logistics sectors.

This would provide financial incentives to employers, particularly small firms, to take on apprentices or trainees and also offer opportunities for graduates. The region’s large employers would lead the scheme, working with SMEs to encourage apprenticeship recruitment across the supply chain.

TVU also endorsed a number of third-party bids, which includes one to support the development of an integrated petrochemical cluster.

It said the £3.8m bid could attract £1bn of private sector investment and potentially create 2,000 jobs over the lifetime of the project.

A £10m bond programme, which would help create hundreds of jobs and bring up to £350m of extra work into Tees Valley, has been drawn up to help the advanced manufacturing sector develop.

TVU has also worked with the likes of Business & Enterprise Group and UNW to compile a £30m bid for a Let’s Grow fund that would offer grants of between £50,000 and £1m and create about 2,000 jobs – 764 in the Tees Valley.

Stephen Catchpole, managing director of TVU, said: “The latest Tees Valley bids are extremely wide ranging.

They embrace schemes that will benefit large, medium and small-enterprises across a broad spectrum of sectors and also help young people wanting to take that important first step on the career ladder.

“The projects and programmes are imaginative, forward- thinking and have great potential to help deliver TVU’s economic ambitions of growing our industrial base, diversifying and expanding the local economy and laying foundations for long-term prosperity.”

The winning schemes will be announced by the Government this autumn.