Businesses will get support to unleash power of digital

Businesses in the Local London sub-region will benefit from a new service to help them capitalise on the power of digital.

Local London – a partnership of eight councils in the North East and South East of London – has been awarded £5.62 million from the Strategic Investment Pot to develop and deliver an e-Business for Growth service for three years.

The emergence of digital marketing and other technologies is rapidly becoming more important to businesses to reach new and existing customers, engage with them and generate sales however some owners lack the knowledge and skills to capitalise effectively, and are unaware of the risks posed by threats and cybercrime.

The programme will be available to 6,000 small and medium-sized businesses in Redbridge, Enfield, Newham, Bexley, Greenwich, Havering, Waltham Forest and Barking & Dagenham.

It will be based upon a successful model piloted by the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Activities are projected to generate short and long-term positive economic impacts at local, borough and sub-regional levels worth more than £106 million over the life of the programme and beyond.

The service is currently in development and will be launched in Spring 2020.

The Strategic Investment Pot is a fund supporting business growth in London and is made up of business rates income re-distributed to the Mayor of London from Government.