The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has announced £5million of funding to support creative and innovative ways to achieve economic growth.

Mark Reeve, LEP chairman, revealed the second round of the Growing Places Fund in front of 130 Cambridgeshire businessmen at the Marriott Hotel in Huntingdon on November 28.

He said: “We are able to launch this £5m call for projects following on from a successful first round of projects that have repaid their loans. In 2013, we provided £16.1m of Growing Places funding to a range of different projects to unlock their potential, with £5m being paid back already, proving that this type of funding works.”

The fund offers loan finance, with a minimum bid value of £100,000 and is primarily targeted at projects which can be repaid in less than three years. The projects can include loans for SMEs to start up and grow, construction of a new office, access works to unlock commercial developments and more.

INFORMATION: The project launches on January 24 with expressions of interest made before March 7.