Content

Business Support and Advice

Business Grants

Information on business grant schemes managed by East Devon District Council under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund can be found on our dedicated UKSPF webpage. Currently, our Carbon Action Fund is open for applications for decarbonisation projects. 

Devon Funding News provides the latest information and opportunities on grants available to Devon businesses.

Sign up to our Business Bulletin to be the first to hear about new schemes as they go live. 

The Growth Hub

The Heart of the South West Growth Hub provides the key access point for free business support in Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay.

The Growth Hub service is the point of contact for both new and established businesses seeking business support. The team are on hand to answer your questions or make referrals to experts in specialist areas.

The Growth Hub is able to assist any business sector and any business size, and offers this service completely free at point of access for all businesses seeking advice.

This service will provide:

  • Online business advisers to talk through your business goals with you and put you in touch with the best support to help you achieve them.
  • Outreach events and workshops will be run across the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership area.
  • The web portal heartofswgrowthhub.co.uk will provide access to information about all business support currently available in your local area as well as links to national programs. You will also find full listings of local business support events and workshops.
  • Information provision - monthly e-newsletters provide updates on support services available to businesses such as advice, grants, funding, events and workshops and key business topics such as sales, marketing or public procurement opportunities.

Get in touch at 03456 047 047 or visit the Growth Hub website.

The Heart of the South West Growth Hub service is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Plymouth City Council are the Managing Authority on behalf of Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership.

Prosper Business Support

Prosper is a new support service for businesses and entrepreneurs in Exeter, East Devon & Mid Devon. It offers wide-ranging support covering support for running your business, support to start a new business, support for businesses looking to take on additional staff, & support for businesses looking to become more environmentally friendly and reach net zero or decarbonisation goals.

Register using their sign-up form to find out how they can support you and your business.

Prosper is funded through East Devon's UK Shared Prosperity Fund. For more information, head to our UKSPF webpages. 

Additional Support

Additional provision of business support and advice can be found through:

Devon County Council’s current business support projects

East Devon Tourism Network which brings together tourism businesses to share best practices, encourage partnership work, and foster sustainable growth

The Devon Delivers website which provides support to businesses looking to relocate to Devon, including the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone.

SETSquared is a business incubator run as a collaboration between six UK universities. It offers a series of business support programmes designed to help start-ups become viable, profitable, and thriving businesses.

Business Information Point provides free, independent, and tailored support to small businesses. They are currently offering specialised support to farmers and land managers to transition to the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS).

The Green Futures Network is a business support initiative launched by the University of Exeter that gives businesses access to their research and education experts to accelerate business transformation and thrive in the green economy.

Support for Business Decarbonisation

Our Carbon Action Programme (CAP) is now live! Any business based in East Devon can gain free access to 1-2-1 support and training on how to decarbonise. 

The SME Climate Hub offers a free tool to allow businesses to calculate their emissions and find resources to create a plan to reduce their carbon footprint

A more comprehensive list of Net Zero Support for businesses can be found on our dedicated webpage.

Economic Information for Businesses

The Local Economic Review 2023 provides a detailed account of the main economic indicators for East Devon utilising Census data and statistics from other sources. 

Devonomics allows you to access a range of charts and tables on topics relevant to the Devon economy. You can also view documents on people, place and prosperity which will form the evidence base for Devon's Economic Assessment.

The NOMIS Labour Market Profile compiles data from a variety of sources to provide up to date statistics on the labour market.

The Office for National Statistics is currently releasing the results of the 2021 Census and enables users to create custom data sets and view profiles for different areas.

The Value of Tourism data produced by the South West Research Company details the economic impact of the tourism industry in East Devon, along with visitor numbers and average spend: