Our funders Advantage West Midlands (AWM) is one of nine regional development agencies (RDAs) across England to be scrapped, confirmed by the government.  AWM will be replaced by a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).   AWM was set up in 1999 and employs more than 300 people in Birmingham with a budget of £200m for 2010/11 and our thoughts go out to the people there who will lose their jobs as a result of this.  While AWM hopes to continue with current projects, some may be scaled back or cancelled to meet current budget reductions, a spokesman said. The agencies have been criticised in the past, with the Taxpayers’ Alliance, a group that campaigns for lower taxes, describing them as an “unnecessary and expensive layer of bureaucracy that stifle genuine private enterprise”.   A government white paper will be published this summer regarding the development of LEPs.  It is not known what potential savings will be made from the changes.

This means Niche Vehicle is under review and there is a chance that our funding will be reduced or even cut all together.  In order to ‘put our best foot forward’ please would could you show your appreciation by writing us a letter of support for us to continue our work in supporting SMEs in low volume automotive?  If our funding is cut, then the Network is also at risk as the Advantage Niche Vehicle Programme supports Niche Vehicle Network activities and ensures Niche Vehicle Network activities is free to members.  It doesn’t have to be a long letter, just as long as it states that Advantage Niche Vehicle and the Niche Vehicle Network is a valuable resource to your business.

We would appreciate it if you could write in support of ADVANTAGE NICHE VEHICLE to Michael Laverty (care of the project) on company headed notepaper and post hard copy to this address? 

Michael Laverty, Advantage West Midlands

c/o ANV Programme Manager, CENEX, 2.6 Technocentre, COVENTRY, CV1 2TT.

The programme office will collate the letters and ensure they are presented to our reviewers when they examine the Programme in the coming weeks.

There are also other ways to support us; you could write to your local MP, put a call for support on your website, get the whole department to write us a letter each, put a post on AWM’s twitter page http://twitter.com/AdvantageWM to support our activity and help us to survive the inevitable axe which must fall on a whole host of AWM projects.  Whatever you do, please don’t forget the hard copy letter to the address above?

It’s up to you as our members, if you want our work to continue, you will support us now whilst we are under review.  Please don’t delay?

Thank you in advance for your help and support.  JC

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