The government has launched the Northern 500, a network for 500 of the North of England's “most ambitious” mid-sized businesses, alongside a proposed British Business Bank fund of up to £150m for northern scale-ups.

Chancellor John Healey announced both at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry on 7 September, in a speech centred on cutting planning and regulatory delays.

The Treasury said the network would bring businesses into a single growth community led by the Great North partnership of mayors, with support from central government and the private sector.

The British Business Bank said the proposed Northern scale-up fund is expected to make investments of between £5m and £15m in university spinouts and other innovative, high-growth businesses, including firms in Newcastle. The Bank's commitment is intended to attract additional private capital. Healey set an ambition alongside it to double the number of UK companies valued at more than £1bn.

The two measures were announced together, but the government has not said membership of the Northern 500 will determine access to the fund.

McGuinness said the Northern 500 would offer businesses support on skills, exports and research and development. "We have launched the Northern 500 to bring our most ambitious mid-sized businesses into a new collective," she wrote on LinkedIn. Healey will chair the initiative, she said.

The Great North was formed in May 2025 by eight mayoral areas: the North East, Tees Valley, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.

The proposed fund is a different offer from the Bank's existing Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, a £660m programme that has operated across the North since March 2024. That fund provides loans of £25,000 to £100,000, debt finance of up to £2m and equity investment of up to £5m.

Its £5m floor begins where Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II's equity ceiling stops, so a North East company raising equity above £5m would be the target for the new fund rather than the existing one.

The Treasury has not published a turnover, headcount or sector threshold, or a process for selecting the firms. The Bank has not named a manager for the proposed scale-up fund or set a timetable for applications.

McGuinness said the programme would begin with a Great North trade mission to India in October.