The Government published guidance on the Regional Funding Advice (RFA2) process in July 2008. 
 
The advice is available to download from the HM Treasury website and a Supplementary Transport Note (RFA) published by the Department for Transport is also available from the DfT website. 
 
The advice provides indicative regional funding allocations for transport, housing, economic development and regeneration for the current CSR period, and beyond to 2018. The funding allocations beyond 2011-12 are indicative only and final decisions will be established in future spending reviews. 
 
This is the second RFA process. The region submitted previous advice to government in 2006, leading to tangible outcomes such as the development of the Regional Infrastructure Fund and progress on a number of major transport schemes, current RFA1 transport advice is available on the Regional Assembly website. The main differences second time around are the inclusion of regeneration and (to a certain extent) skills within the process. For further information on the consultation process for skills advice please visit the South West Regional Skills Partnership website. 
 
Regions are invited to provide advice on investment priorities in these areas in order to influence public spending to support sustainable economic development.  
Whilst not prescriptive about how the process should be managed, the guidance suggests that Regional Development Agencies and Regional Assemblies will have a key role to play in developing the advice. 
 
It goes on to state that 'advice will be more credible if it is based on a wide consensus and reflects the views of the broadest range of stakeholders', including the business community, local authorities, social, environmental and economic partners, and the third sector. Government Offices will facilitate the process in each region. 
 
The guidance states that advice should:

• Set out specific funding priorities for each year up to and including 2018-19
• Illustrate a clear prioritisation of investments
• Demonstrate an integrated approach to investments
• Be clearly sequenced, illustrating how programmes of activity support growth over time
• Provide strong evidence that programmes of investment are consistent with the delivery of existing commitments and priorities if a region decides to recommend changes to the balance of funding between different themes

The advice must be submitted to the Regional Minister. Ben Bradshaw by the end of February 2009. 
 
A number of Stakeholder meetings are being held across the region to gather the views of the wider community. Feedback and copies of the presentations from these events can be found in the comprehensive Regional Funding Allocations Advice 2008 section of the South West Regional Assembly website. 
 
The first event was held at Sandy Park, Exeter on 17 October. For those who attended, feedback from two of the group table discussions is now available: 
Notes from Table Discussion 1 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 72.66kb) 
Flipchart write-up from Table Discussion 2 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 33.69kb)