Clarity called for on West Mids funding schemes
Grants and loans are getting lost in a 'money maze', tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill is warning. Johnathan Dudley, Midlands managing partner at the firm, said there remains a "bewildering number" of grants and loan agencies available in the region.
Dudley is calling for greater attempts to combine the different agencies, possibly with the regional local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) taking a lead.
He added that the region's lobbying group Business Voice WM (BVWM) estimated there were about 500 different funds available in the West Midlands.
"We are talking of the likes of Advantage Business Angels, Aston Reinvestment Trust, Birmingham City Council Business Loan Fund, Black Country Reinvestment Society, Connect Midlands … the list goes on and on," said Dudley.
"BVWM has made a decent fist of trying to list and explain the nature of these different agencies, but it might also be an area where LEPs, working together, can get involved.
"It is ironic that all this exists yet businesses are crying out for finance to expand."
He said the current organisation of funding bodies "must be hugely confusing for businesses".
"To progress it themselves they need to pursue many different avenues and a forest of form-filling. Many simply do not have the time," said Dudley.
"No wonder so many fall prey to dubious grants information agencies that promise the earth, charge a hefty fee and often fail to deliver satisfactorily. Something needs to be done."
