The take-up of investment from the government’s £50m Enterprise Development Fund has not been as great as expected, it has been confirmed.

Just £3m of the fund has been invested instead of the allocated £10m a year.

Carl Hawker, deputy chief executive and executive director of strategy and policy in the Department for Enterprise, told Business News the whole arena of business investment and attracting new companies to the Isle of Man was under review.

Today (Wednesday) the spotlight will fall on ISLEXPO, a full day business event aimed at showcasing the island in the business arena.

Mr Hawker said: ‘There’s a whole range of financial support the Department for Enterprise gives people, Enterprise gives people, right from people who want to start a micro -business, and do not normally know how.

‘And it goes all the way through to a big company that either needs new capital equipment, or a loan or needs equity finance and everything in the middle.

‘In the Programme for Government there is a commitment from the department to review all of its financiual assistance by October 2018.

‘So we are looking at everything, right from the very smallest micro business scheme all the way through to the Enterprise Development Scheme which was set up in 2016.

‘At the time [it was set up] there were about 800 people out of work and that has halved to fewer than 400 now.

‘And there were real problems with businesses getting access to capital and loans.

‘It clearly was felt that government should try and step in and help businesses and also help them relocate to the island.

‘It was always designed to support both local and relocating businesses.

Mr Hawker admitted ‘the relocating part of that, of businesses moving here from the UK, has not been as successful as we would have hoped’.

He said SPARK Impact, which manage the scheme for the government from an office in Athol Stret, Douglas, had ‘looked at 300 odd applications since the scheme was launched, in two years.’

He added: ‘And nine of those have now found their way to an investment.’

He said it was important the investment managers from SPARK ‘do their job and only support investments they think will be successful.

‘It was a £50 million fund, a five-year contract with SPARK.

‘The implication was that we hoped they would get through £10m of investment every year, and after two years we have got through £3m.’

He said there could be a number of reasons why SPARK could be finding it difficult to find businesses to relocate.

He pointed to a new Northern Powerhouse fund in England, a new £400m fund launched in 2017, covering the whole of the northwest of England.

Mr Hawker said venture capitalists in the UK were offering grants and equity stakes to businesses.

He said: ‘The competitive landscape has changed for businesses, the whole environment has changed.’

He added that also the decrease in unemployment in the island meant there was a tighter labour market. He confimed there was a skills shortage in the island that covers a whole range of sectors in our diversified economy.