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By the time you read this, we will have seen the latest group of presentations from businesses seeking investment funding of up to £5m at the 10th annual Connect Midlands Investment Conference and held our 10th anniversary event.

Now more than ever, growing businesses will need to look outside of traditional finance to help them reach and fulfil their potential and with so many changes in the air, I thought I’d share the key issues that we discussed at both events with the readers of Insider.

October’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) highlighted a number of pertinent points:

· significant cuts in higher education but maintained investment in science and R&D

· £200m earmarked per annum by 2015 for manufacturing, business development, supporting high growth companies and commercialising technologies

· £150m to leverage equity investment and guaranteed lending to small businesses

· A £1bn+ UK wide Green Investment Bank to support low carbon “green” infrastructure

Cameron has been keen to emphasise that the private sector, entrepreneurs and high growth businesses will fundamentally drive economic recovery, growth and future prosperity. I’m sure you would agree that raising finance, commercialising innovation and creating new jobs are still crucial elements in enabling that to happen.

In support of that, the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) of £1.4bn was launched to support projects that help to rebalance the economy towards private sector-led growth and employment.

In addition the government has given 24 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) the green light to plan for driving local sustainable economic growth, four in the East Midlands and four in the West Midlands. We look forward to working with them.

The White Paper; “Local Growth: Realising Every Place’s Potential” is worthy of your attention. It identified:

· the creation of Growth Hubs to assist potential high growth firms to really motor

· the process for wind-down of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)

I must say that our local RDAs, East Midlands Development Agency and Advantage West Midlands, have been very supportive of Connect Midlands and I do hope that the wealth of expertise of RDA staff is harnessed as an asset for the future and not simply lost.

David Cameron said in his speech to the CBI on 25th October “…we’ve got to back the big businesses of tomorrow, not just the big businesses of today. That means opening up access to finance, creating an attractive environment for venture capital funding, getting banks lending to small business again …”

Thus, the public sector will still be supporting small businesses with growth potential like you, as you are the stars and world-beaters of tomorrow. Although the devil, as always, is in the detail, we are confident that there will be support to help you raise investment and commercialise your ideas and innovations. And Connect Midlands will continue to support businesses that are looking for assistance in reaching their full potential.

Unfortunately, it is too late for you to join the prospects that pitched for money at CMIC 2010 or, as investors, to see these investment-ready companies for yourself. However, we will still be running a range of events throughout the remainder of the financial year. If you would like to find out more, visit www.connectmidlands.org

John Griffiths, director of Connect Midlands