Northwest RDA is ‘closed to new business’

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Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) has announced it is ‘essentially closed for any new business’.

In response to the coalition government reducing the NWDA’s budget this year by £52m, the agency has revealed there will be no new financial commitments in 2011-12.

A statement on its website reads: ‘Any northwest programme or project that has not had NWDA funding contracted for 2010/11 will not now secure funding from the agency and the agency is essentially closed for any new business.’

Operational or capacity funding for partner organisations will end in March 2011 for urban regeneration and economic development companies including Liverpool Vision, Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre EDC, Central Salford and New East Manchester.

Sub-regional partnerships including Lancashire Economic Partnership and Cheshire and Warrington Economic Alliance will also be hit.

Scores of projects as diverse as World Series Netball, Wirral’s higher education campus and a direct rail link for Manchester, Burnley and Accrington that had approached NWDA for possible funding will now need to seek alternative investment.

NWDA chief executive Steven Broomhead acknowledged there was ‘bound to be an economic impact on the partners, businesses and communities with whom we work’.

‘In addition, the size of the cuts means that we have little flexibility in our future budgets and the agency will not be able to make any new investments or renew partner contracts before our dissolution in April 2012,’ he said.