All RDAs across England are closing by March 2012
(see transition and closure section).
With our resources reducing steadily, this page has not been recently updated and the information below may not be current.
If in doubt, please contact us directly.
Recession response and economic recovery
The South West economy has made strong progress in the last
decade, with its relative position on productivity (GVA per hour)
improving markedly compared to the UK average. However, the
most severe recession for decades placed particular stress on the
region and led to a series of national and regional measures to
counteract them.
As signs of the recovery start to appear, we are working hard
with our partners to put strategies and support services in place
to continue to help steer the South West economy through these
testing times.
Our economic intelligence team produce a quarterly economics
review that details the current position and future prospects for
the region. This valuable resource was recognised with a gold
award in the best publication category of the 2009 CIPR
West of England Pride awards. To view the latest review
(along with previous editions), please visit the Economy section.
Action at national and regional level
The emerging economic crisis over recent months prompted a range
of action from central government and the South West RDA to address
the situation.
Central to this was the establishment by the RDA of a South West
Loan Fund in early 2009. This was to help viable businesses in the
region access the finance they needed. The South West RDA also
worked with partners to establish eight Area Action Forces to help
individual businesses deal with the challenges they continue to
face. To date, Area Action Forces have worked with almost 500
businesses across the south west.
The offer from delivery partners funded by the RDA, such as MAS
SW and Business Link was also revised where relevant to meet the
new economic conditions. Since late 2008, Business Link has
conducted over 9,600 Health Checks with businesses in the region,
helping them identify solutions to the problems they have been
facing. The RDA also set up a series of roadshows in 2009 which
allowed 500 businesses to receive face to face advice from a wide
range of organisations such as Business Link and the region’s
leading banks.
The South West RDA also participated in the work to
coordinate the national and regional public sector response to the
recession. This included working with the National Economic
Council, the Regional Economic Council, the Council of Regional
Ministers and the South West Regional Economic Task
Group.
The RDA also established the Regional Business Forum to ensure
regular dialogue with leading business organisations as the
recession developed. The Forum is continuing to provide this
valuable function as planning for the recovery accelerates.
Business support
Working with Government, the South West RDA was instrumental in
simplifying the range of business support at a time when business
needed a readily understandable range of help. This has resulted in
the simplification of publicly funded business support from over
3,000 different products to just 30, under the Solutions for Business banner. At the same time,
the RDA launched its Talent Retention
Scheme to help match individuals facing redundancy in key
industries with vacancies in their industry.