The Working Neighbourhoods (Wards) of Furness offer great opportunities for companies to undertake investment and job creation. your company should look for growth in our working neighbourhoods - wards where the main business sites are located and adjacent populations provide a well qualified range of skilled labour.

Working Neighbourhoods Funds (WNF) is being used in a highly effective way by Furness Enterprise to support creation of jobs for local people by helping businesses to grow and create vacancies. The emphasis is on

• matching available labour force skills to the needs of expanding businesses in wards where people live.
• the Borough Council supporting capital investment within the key wards.

Barrow in Furness Borough Council have received £8.4m of Working Neighbourhoods Funds (WNF) from the Government from 2008 for three years to help address the challenge of worklessness within their Borough. There is a special focus on delivering assistance to people in designated, high priority wards of Barrow in Furness (see table below) which have high real levels of unemployment and locations for great opportunities for investment, job creation and growth.

We are fortunate in Barrow in the fact that almost all the wards where worklessness is high happen to also be the main areas where existing businesses are concentrated and sites/premises for incoming or expanding local businesses are located, see Table below.

Note * new site under development

Furness Enterprise has secured contracts from Barrow Borough Council to implement Working Neighbourhoods Funded schemes covering activity such as:-

• Attracting companies into Furness
• helping people back into work
• Helping local firms expand and provide business and other premises
• Encouraging entrepreneurship amongst all age groups
• Supporting new business start ups by individuals or workless people

All of these schemes are being managed from Waterside House Business Centre which is located in Barrow Island (priority) Ward

Individual entrepreneurs and companies investing in the Priority Wards and Borough area can apply for discretionary Assisted Area (Selective Finance for Investment) towards capital investment and job creation.

Local grant schemes (such as the Furness Peninsula Task Force Enterprise Fund) can also assist with job creation.

Workless individuals and people wishing to re-skill can access a range of services designed to help them build their capacity to prepare for and find work through special programmes that offer one to one customised guidance and job finding help. This includes identification of potential vacancies with employers and working with employers to identify vacancies, jobs fairs run in association with individual employers( we have done this for firms like Risedale Care, Argos, Reliance Security.

Arrange of entrepreneurial networking, master-class and enterprise education in schools events are also offered,(see our events page).

On the linked pages you can find out more about the extent of individual priority wards, the firms within them and where we have drop in advice and help centres trading under The Workshop brand