Advantage West Midlands (AWM) is on the prowl for fund managers for its new £45m business support fund.
Only a few weeks ago, AWM released details of projects that it has withdrawn funding for after the British government restricted its generous funding of AWM’s slush fund. The setting up of a new £45m fund whilst projects that [...]
A couple of weeks ago, Advantage West Midlands (AWM) announced that they had run out of our money and were pulling funding for a number of projects.
At the time they refused to disclose which projects were having funding withdrawn so West Midlands NO! put in a Freedom of Information request to find out which projects [...]
Yes, we’ve heard similar pledges before from the Tories but this one is quite unequivical - the Tory Shadow Cabinet member for Communities and Local Government has pledged that all regional quangos will be abolished should they win the next election.
On his blog, John Redwood says that Spelman has made the following pledges:
Unelected Regional assemblies [...]
This was in yesterday’s Birmingham Post:
Could councils do the job of RDAs in the West Midlands?
We don’t hear much about the north-south divide any more.
Which is odd, because it’s just as wide as ever.
In fact, by some measurements the wealth gap between the rich south east and the rest of the country has become worse [...]
During the Tory Party conference in Birmingham the other weekend, David Cameron said that he would abolish Regional Devlopment Agencies if they win the next election.
The Tories see great savings in getting rid of these unelected quangos, something we understandably agree with. There isn’t much meat on the bones of the Tories’ plan to get [...]
The Taxpayers Alliance has heaped criticism on Regional Development Agencies and singled out AWM for its terrible performance on job creation.
RDA’s have been around for 10 years and received £15.3bn in funding from the taxpayer yet more jobs were created in the 10 years prior to RDA’s taking responsibility for job creation despite it being the [...]
The vacant position for Chairman of the unelected regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands, will remain unfilled for a while longer after yet another favourite for the job pulled out for the leadership race.
Brian Woods-Scawen has pulled out of the leadership race after apparently getting frustrated with the drawn-out appointments process. He is currently [...]
The Commons Transport Committee has criticised the AWM-sponsored redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station saying that it is not convinced that the redeveloped station will be adequate for expected future use.
No matter how much money is spent on New Street Station, there is no realistic way of expanding the station any further because there is [...]
BBC’s Midlands Today programme have given Advantage West Midlands a well-deserved slating today over its £6m new offices for West Midlands Business Link.
Local businesses are struggling with the credit crunch, the onset of a global recession and the continual decline of the manufacturing industry upon which the economy of the West Midlands connurbation has traditionally [...]
John Edwards, the former unelected Chief Executive of the unelected Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, is being given a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the rural economy.
Edwards presided over Birmingham-centric AWM for many years and as anyone who lives outside of “Greater Birmingham” will know, AWM cares very little for [...]
