Day: November 10, 2018

More than 25,000 domestic abuse survivors will be supported to rebuild their lives thanks to a £22 million allocation for projects across the country, Housing Minister Heather Wheeler MP has announced today (10 November 2018).

Over 60 projects in England will be supported by the funding over the next 2 years – ensuring thousands of survivors have access to the help they need, when they need it.

The money will provide over 2,200 new beds in refuges and other safe accommodation, access to education, and tailored employment and life skills guidance as survivors move towards building a safe and healthy future for themselves and their children – free from domestic abuse.

Projects will be delivered by councils working alongside local organisations to help ensure that no survivor of domestic abuse is turned away from the support they need to start their new life.

Housing Minister Heather Wheeler MP said:

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime, which shatters the lives of survivors and their families. It is our duty to ensure survivors can seek help by providing the support they need to restart their lives.

Through providing specialist accommodation and access to employment, this fund will make sure local authorities and charities can provide a strong safety net for anyone facing the threat of abuse in their own home.

Innovative local projects that will receive a share of funding include:

Portsmouth & Hampshire New Approaches

This project will cover 5 local authority areas providing targeted support designed to meet the needs of those who have experienced domestic violence and abuse. It will provide help to women, children and young people living in refuge accommodation across the region in addition to making it easier for those from BAME and LGBT backgrounds to access support services

Norfolk county council – Norfolk Partnership

Norfolk’s ANCHOR initiative will ensure that any survivor of domestic abuse in Norfolk has access to tailored support for their individual needs to assist them on the path to recovery. It will involve strong partnership working between local organisations to ensure services are effectively joined up. This will build support for those with additional needs, such as mental health and substance misuse and help will also be tailored to those from BAME backgrounds.

Sandra Horley CBE, Chief Executive of Refuge said:

That Refuge services will be supported by this fund is hugely welcome news both for us and particularly for the thousands of women and children we support on a daily basis.

Critically, this funding ensures that many of our refuges will remain open and continue to provide life-saving specialist support to those experiencing domestic abuse. A small number would have been forced to close had we not received these crucial funds.

We are equally delighted to be in a position to now expand one of our services in London, which provides essential support for survivors with additional needs.

In the summer, government announced almost £19 million of funding to expand support for survivors of domestic abuse services across England. This fund has now been extended to £22 million.

This follows previous government funding totalling £20 million during 2016 to 2018, which helped create more than 2,000 bed spaces and gave support to over 19,000 survivors and their families.

Further to this, the government has also published new guidance for councils to prioritise domestic abuse survivors in refuges when allocating social housing and encourages councils to use existing powers to support survivors to remain safely in their own homes if they choose to do so.

The government will shortly be introducing a new landmark Domestic Abuse Bill to further protect and support survivors, recognise the life-long impact domestic abuse has on children and make sure agencies are responding effectively to domestic abuse.

We are also committed to reviewing how domestic abuse services are commissioned and funded across England and will set out next steps shortly.

See the
full list of allocations
(PDF, 125KB, 6 pages)

for the £22 million fund.

Further information

The Domestic Abuse Fund was launched on 2 July 2018. It was originally launched as an £18.8 million fund.

The funding builds on other actions being taken by the government to end domestic abuse, support survivors and ensure offenders are prosecuted. Such as:

• allocation of a £20 million fund for local authorities working in partnership with services providers to boost services between 2016 and 2018
• a new domestic abuse offence to capture coercive and controlling behaviour, the criminalisation of forced marriage and the introduction of new stalking laws
• a national roll-out of domestic violence protection orders and the domestic violence disclosure scheme
• the £15 million 3-year Violence Against Women and Girls Service Transformation Fund
• the government previously held a consultation titled Improving access to social housing for victims of domestic abuse from October 30, 2017 to January 5, 2018. This consultation outlined proposals for new statutory guidance to councils to assist survivors of domestic abuse in refuges to access social housing.

The eleven separate foreign investments are expected to create 359 jobs across the UK – in London, Leeds, Newcastle and Reading.

These investments – several of which have originated from growing Latin American and Asian markets, including Brazil, Argentina and India – are set to have major benefits for British consumers and businesses.

The investment wins are the result of the Department for International Trade’s work across its extensive network of more than 100 countries, demonstrating to potential foreign investors why the UK continues to be the best place to build a business.

As well as one of the G20’s lowest corporate tax rates, DIT provides businesses with assistance in growing a UK-based workforce, with insights into specific UK sector markets, and much more at invest.great.gov.uk.

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox said:

It’s easy to see why the UK is Europe’s top destination for foreign direct investment. Our country is home to world leading research and development capability, as well as a culture of innovation.

My international economic department has a network of Trade Commissioners operating across the world, seeking investment opportunities that will help create jobs and improve the lives of people in the UK.

As we celebrate the Lord Mayor’s parade, today’s announcement is further evidence that the UK is one of the most attractive places in the world to invest and demonstrates a vote of confidence in our economy and our people.

The FinTech announcements come ahead of the International Trade Secretary’s attendance at the Lord Mayor’s Show this weekend.

Dr Fox and outgoing Lord Mayor Charles Bowman launched a new FinTech steering board earlier this year, aiming to further propel the success of the sector through a partnership between government, academia and industry.

Some of the investment deals secured include:

• Globant: Argentine software and digital design company that has invested £32 million to expand its ongoing operation in London, creating 140 jobs

• ThinCI: US company specialising in software for artificial intelligence products will create a new site in Leeds, creating 40 jobs

• Avnet: US electronics company has spent £5 million to acquire UK-based information technology company Hanhaa, creating 25 new jobs

Nearly half of Europe’s FinTech ‘unicorns’ are based in London, with app-only bank Monzo the latest company to join the list at the end of October, while the Prime Minister announced £2.3 billion of investment in FinTech during London Tech Week, creating 1,600 jobs.

London is the focal point of the UK’s tech sector, and its information and communications technology market – worth £36 billion – is Europe’s largest. There are over 200,000 digital tech professionals in the capital from across the globe, as well as world-leading universities and tech infrastructure.

Total venture capital investment in UK tech companies since 2016 has surpassed £5 billion, and was more than Germany, Spain, France and Ireland combined last year.

Dinakar Munagalam, CEO of ThinCI said:

The Department for International Trade was very helpful guiding us through the unfamiliar regulatory network for setting up a new venture in the UK. This assistance allowed up to get establish quickly and our newly employed engineers and programmers productive in record time.

What attracted ThinCI to the UK is its talent pool of engineers and programmers that could immediately begin providing the chip design and software development assistance we needed. We found that talent in Leeds and Kings Langley.

Mundeep Nayyar, managing director of Infotel UK said:

The technology sector in Newcastle upon Tyne is estimated to be worth almost £1bn and growing more than twice as fast as the rest of the economy.

With access to leading blue-chip businesses that need Infotel UK’s services and nearly 25,000 students in higher education, the City is the ideal location to find and cultivate new talent and to grow a high-tech software business.

It’s a perfect storm for investment as we look to offer more and better solutions to our clients while maintaining our dedication to quality customer service and delivery.

Director, Paper Plus, Kaushal Shah said:

We at Paper Plus believe in making sustainability the new normal for consumers in the UK and over the world. The expertise and advice of DIT have been a significant accelerator for our business.

The professional knowledge of our DIT advisors is phenomenal and it enhances the credibility of the UK as an excellent place to do business.

Further Information:

Full list of investment deals:

• Eye Capital: Argentine Fintech company which has invested £2 million to open a new London office, creating 10 jobs.

• LHV Pank: Estonian bank which has invested £1 million to open a new London branch creating seven jobs.

• Globant: Argentine software and digital design company that has invested £32 million to expand its ongoing operation in London, creating 140 jobs.

• ThinCI: US company specialising in software for artificial intelligence products will create a new site in Leeds, creating 40 jobs.

• Avnet: US electronics company has spent £5 million to acquire UK-based information technology company Hanhaa, creating 25 new jobs.

• Tradify HQ: NZ-based business organisation software company have invested £1.2 million to build a new office in Reading, creating 14 jobs.

• Infotel: French software company that has invested £1 million to build new premises in Newcastle, creating six jobs.

• Engineer.ai: Global venture capitalists Lakestar, Jungle Ventures & Softbank’s DeepCore have announced that they will invest £22.5 million in this London-based AI company, who will be creating further jobs in addition to the 50 already created.

• Aethra: Brazil’s largest autoparts manufacturer has selected the UK as the location for their new European subsidiary. Their £30 million investment will create 10 jobs over the next four years.

• MKW Engineering: Precision engineering company which, as part of US-owned Simmons and Company International, has announced £9.3 million of investment to secure new premises in North Tyneside. The company are relocating and consolidating their operation in the North East and creating 100 new jobs.

• Paper Plus: UK companies will find it easier than ever before to go green, after DIT assisted this carbon-neutral paper manufacturer to secure £5.5 million of investment from India, expanding their London operation and creating seven new jobs. The company has already saved half a million trees in two years, and will use some of the investment to fund research into biodegradable food packaging.