Business Hothouse

The Business Hothouse was a £10.9million business support programme run by the University of Chichester Business School.

It ran from January 2020 through to April 2023 and was funded by the ERDF and by district councils within the coast-to-capital area.

It provided both business knowledge support and business grant funding to businesses located within that area.

Business HotHouse logo
Logos: HM Government and EU Development Fund

The Business Hothouse programme was delivered by the University of Chichester Business School and its free support was available to any sole trader, business owner, freelancer or pre-start entrepreneur in the coast-to-capital area.

The Business Hothouse programme was launched with the aim of creating:

  1. Increased entrepreneurship particularly:
    • Amongst under-represented groups
    • Within areas with low levels of enterprise activity
  2. An increased growth capacity in SMEs

The programme was highly successful and amongst its many achievements it delivered:

  • Support to 625 enterprises
  • Awarded Invest4 business grants – totalling £2.65million - to 168 enterprises
  • 58 new jobs
  • Business knowledge support to 496 pre-start entrepreneurs, enabling them to become enterprise-ready
  • Assisted 64 enterprises to bring introduce new-to-firm products
  • Diagnostics and brokerage support to 97 enterprises.

You can view the final summative assessment report, which provides full details of the programme's outputs, in the documents below.

District and County Councils continue to offer free business support to businesses and entrepreneurs who are located within their respective areas. Local Chambers of Commerce also offer support and a business network for a small membership fee.

West Sussex County Business West Sussex support page

Coast to Capital Growth Hub

Horsham District Horsham District Council business support page

Billingshurst & Horsham Chamber of Commerce

Chichester District Chichester District Council business support page

Chichester Chamber of Commerce

Worthing and Adur Districts Adur & Worthing Councils business support page

Worthing & Adur Chamber of Commerce

Brighton and Hove Brighton & Hove City Council business support page

Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce

Arun District Arun District Council business support page

Arun Business Partnership

Mole Valley District Mole Valley District Council business support website

Mole Valley Chamber of Commerce

Mid-Sussex District Mid-Sussex District Council business support page

Sussex Chamber of Commerce

Business Hothouse logo
EU logo
HM Government logo

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