Following, the Coalition Government’s moratorium on all Regional Development Agencies nationwide halting the issue of any more grant funding offers,  David Armstrong, a grant specialist at chartered accountants Francis Clark, expressed his disappointment suggesting the blanket ban should not apply to SWRDA.
 
He said: “The moratorium covers all grant schemes administered by the RDA including GTBI, RDPE and Convergence.
 
“Despite the public sector funding environment and continued speculation over and the future of the RDAs, this still appears to be a knee jerk reaction from Whitehall.
 
“However, unique to SWRDA, the majority of its funding is European funding not UK Government and therefore there is a strong case for SWRDA to be excluded from the moratorium.  SWRDA is believed to be under legal obligation to deliver this funding and the associated outputs in terms of jobs , factory space, training etc,
 
“You have to have some sympathy with SWRDA’s predicament here. It’s not their fault and they are doing what they can. Nevertheless, they are presented with a situation where projects are being delayed until further guidance is provided which currently is not forthcoming.”

Francis Clark has offices in Exeter, Plymouth, Salisbury, Taunton, Tavistock, Torquay and Truro. Francis Clark is the winner of the ‘Auditor of the Year - Mid Tier’ in the National Financial Directors’ Excellence Awards 2011, and LexisNexis Best General Tax Practice Award 2009. More information is available by logging on at our Online Information Centre