I think this means that a previous iteration of this effort had a value of £249,000. The article is mainly about the current iteration, which has some other total value that is presumably larger. It isn't clear how much the current iteration is worth, at least from the article alone.
In general I agree that this might not be significant, unless the total value of the current contract is large or there are notable research or engineering results.
Specifically, this new stage of the project has £2.9 million of new funding, according to the linked press release. Still feels like pocket change, I wonder how much they can really do with that little
In general I agree that this might not be significant, unless the total value of the current contract is large or there are notable research or engineering results.