Back Bellingham Business
Working with businesses in Bellingham, Kielder and surrounding communities to co-design and pilot a new rural business support service.
Designed by businesses, for businesses.
We’re working with businesses, self-employed people and community stakeholders in Bellingham, Kielder and surrounding communities to improve local business and enterprise support. Our ambition is to co-design business support services that best meet their needs, then pilot the delivery of these services locally.
We are talking to local stakeholders and businesses right now. If you want to contribute ideas, please get in touch using the form below.
Why are we doing this now?
The Rural Design Centre has been providing rural start-up and growth support in Northumberland for a number of years now. We have consistently heard that local business support is difficult to navigate and not always meeting the needs of rural business. This project aims to address these concerns and build better services for the future.
This work has been funded by the Royal Countryside Fund, awarding funds from the National Lottery Community Fund. In addition to the benefits for the Bellingham area, we hope this project will inform and benefit other rural communities across the UK in the future.
Project Plan
April & May 2025
Consultation with businesses and stakeholders in the Bellingham, Kielder and North Tyne area. This will help us better understand opinions on existing business support and what the possible improvements might be.
June 2025
Service design workshops. Working with as many local businesses as possible, we will co-design a service that best meets their needs. This might include local business advisors, access to funding, better business networks, platforms to promote local trade - or anything else that businesses feel might be useful.
July to October 2025
Based on the needs and wants identified at the workshops, we will pilot the delivery of some new services within the community and evaluate their impact. If things have worked well, we will also build a case for longer term delivery.
Get involved
Get in touch with Simon to discuss your ideas for better business support in your community.
