Advantage West Midlands Project Review 2010

Advantage West Midlands has achieved budget cuts of £37.1 million imposed by the Government for the financial year 2010-11.

The Agency has been carrying out a project review involving discussions with delivery partners in all areas of the Agency’s economic development work.

• £34.8 million of cuts were made to existing, legally contracted projects.

• A further £2.3 million saving was made because of lower than expected take-up of business grant offers.

As a result of the in-year budget cuts and the subsequent announcement by Government that AWM and the other RDAs are to be abolished in March 2012, AWM has had to cancel its forward programme of pre-legal pipeline projects.

AWM still has a budget of nearly £250 million for 2010-11 – and its investment this year alone is expected to generate a return of more than £2 billion in economic benefits for businesses in the West Midlands.
 
Mick Laverty, chief executive at Advantage West Midlands, said: “The collective efforts of our Agency staff and our partners have delivered all the savings that the Government asked of us.

“The scale and pace of the cuts required meant that inevitably some difficult and unpopular decisions had to be made.

“Our joint focus has always been to safeguard priority projects - the ones that create most jobs and the greatest growth and support the most competitive businesses across the West Midlands.

“The Government intends to abolish RDAs at the end of March 2012 and is putting in place new economic delivery bodies such as Local Enterprise Partnerships.

“We still have a significant portfolio of project investments and assets that may transfer to successor bodies. We are awaiting Government clarification on this and a range of other matters.

“In the meantime, we are doing our utmost to ensure a smooth transition to the new arrangements. Our main task remains to support economic recovery and future growth through the effective delivery of our remaining projects.”

AWM achieved a further budget reduction set by Government this year by saving £2.3 million in administration costs.