Earlier this week (29 January), ALP Synergy Limited published an independent Growth Hub Cluster Impact Report, revealing the scale and value of coordinated business support delivered across one of the UK’s most strategically important regions.
Launched at the Houses of Parliament by Steve Darling MP, the report shows how a cluster of five Growth Hubs supported 92,719 businesses between April 2020 and March 2025 across a major “growth corridor” spanning Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Milton Keynes, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Peterborough and Suffolk.
At a time marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, economic uncertainty and structural change for SMEs, the findings demonstrate that locally rooted, well-coordinated business support can deliver substantial economic and social value at scale.
But behind the headline figures sits another story. One about data, collaboration and what it really takes to evidence impact.
What is the Growth Hub Cluster Impact Report and why does it matter?
The Growth Hub Cluster Impact Report is a five-year evaluation examining how a group of Growth Hubs supported small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from April 2020 to March 2025, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rather than focusing on one-off initiatives, the report captures the effects of long-term, data-driven business supportdelivered through trusted local systems. It shows what happens when partners commit to continuity, learning and collaboration, not just short funding cycles.
For ALP Synergy Limited, the report also tells a practical story:
How to bring together messy datasets, different reporting cultures and competing local priorities into a single, credible narrative that partners and policymakers can stand behind.
How big was the impact across the Growth Corridor?
In short: Significant and measurable.
Across the nine counties and unitary authorities covered, the Growth Hub Cluster:
- Supported 92,719 businesses between April 2020 and March 2025
- Delivered 178,563 hours of business support
- Helped 3,934 people start a business
- Created 6,970 jobs and safeguarded 6,093 jobs
Looking at higher-intensity clients, the scale becomes even clearer. These businesses:
- Employ over 968,000 people
- Represent nearly 6% of the UK SME workforce
- Generate a combined £25.7 billion in turnover
This is not a niche intervention. It is part of the core economic infrastructure supporting a substantial share of the UK economy.
Value for money: what do the numbers really say?
From a value-for-money perspective, the findings are striking.
Using the National TOMs social value framework, the evaluation found that:
- For every £1 of core government funding, the Cluster delivered £35 of economic and social value
- The cost per job created was £1,165.89, well below historic benchmarks
- Core funding helped unlock:
- £99.75 million in additional public funding
- £98.48 million in private-sector match funding
In practical terms, this means that every £1 of core investment generated around £24 in additional funding to support SME growth.
Against a UK business population of around 5.7 million firms, this level of targeted support looks less like a “nice to have” and more like essential economic plumbing.
How does Growth Hub support compare with other programmes?
When compared with other major business support programmes, the Growth Hub Cluster performs exceptionally well.
Key comparisons include:
- £35 of social and economic value per £1 invested, using a recognised external framework (National TOMs)
- A cost per job created of £1,165.89, compared with an average of £26,400 per job across 63 ERDF programme evaluations
Even allowing for differences in design and time period, this gap is significant! Particularly in a climate of constrained public funding.
The report also compares outcomes with the Made Smarter Innovation programme (2020–2025), which delivered around £2.20 of value per £1 spent, based on SQW’s evaluation for UKRI. By contrast, the Growth Hub Cluster sits at the upper end of value for money, while supporting a much broader range of businesses and sectors.
Taken together, reach, leverage, outcomes and cost. The evidence suggests this model stands up extremely well against historic and national alternatives.
What did ALP Synergy actually do?
ALP Synergy was not brought in simply to “write up the highlights”.
Our role was to design and run the evaluation, which involved three core tasks:
- Collating and cleaning data from five different Growth Hubs
- Testing and analysing the evidence so it would stand up to scrutiny
- Helping partners agree a shared narrative they could all confidently support
Each Growth Hub used different systems, definitions and reporting cycles. Some tracked support hours precisely; others rounded. Measures such as “intensity of support” varied.
This is not unusual, it is the reality of local delivery.
Our work focused on:
- Mapping datasets and definitions
- Building a common reporting framework
- Preserving local differences without compromising credibility
As one team member put it during a particularly complex cross-check:
“If we’re asking Government to trust these numbers, we need to explain them in plain English to a councillor or scrutiny committee – especially when they ask the awkward questions.”
That principle shaped the entire evaluation.
Reaching agreement on the key messages
The evaluation was as much about people as it was about spreadsheets.
Each Growth Hub had its own priorities and flagship programmes, from start-up cohorts and grant schemes to peer networks and sector-specific support.
Our role was to:
- Bring leaders together around shared evidence
- Test which findings were genuinely cluster-wide
- Ensure the final narrative reflected collective impact, not just individual successes
Through workshops and structured discussions, we worked through challenges openly, including scrutiny of the £35 social value per £1 figure and careful testing of claims around inclusive growth.
By the time the report was finalised, there was strong alignment that:
- The Cluster delivers scale and reach into the SME population
- It offers excellent value for money and funding leverage
- It plays a distinctive role in inclusive growth and Net Zero support, not just generic advice
That shared ownership means the report can be used confidently with Government, councils and combined authorities.
The Growth Corridor and national ambition
The Cluster operates across what is often referred to as the Growth Corridor, linking Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge, and extending across surrounding counties.
Government has been clear about the corridor’s strategic importance. The Chancellor has highlighted that better connecting Oxford and Cambridge could add up to £78 billion to the UK economy by 2035, helping create something close to “Europe’s Silicon Valley”.
But that ambition depends on SMEs being able to:
- Access skills, finance and networks
- Navigate Net Zero and supply-chain pressures
- Benefit from new infrastructure rather than being displaced
The Impact Report shows Growth Hubs already playing that enabling role, acting as the human infrastructure behind the bigger economic vision.
What’s next for ALP Synergy?
For us, this evaluation reinforces why ALP Synergy Limited exists.
We work alongside Growth Hubs, councils, combined authorities, universities and regional partnerships to help small and medium-sized businesses start, grow and thrive.
That might involve:
- Designing new programmes and grant funds
- Supporting delivery on the ground
- Or, as here, turning complex data into clear, credible insight
Our takeaway is simple: good evaluation is not just a report at the end. Done well, it is a process of learning, alignment and improvement that strengthens the whole system.
And if you have ever stared at a pile of mismatched spreadsheets and thought, “I really don’t have time to make sense of this” – you are very much our kind of person.