THE body set up to promote and develop regeneration excellence in the West Midlands, RegenWM is to close by the end of the year.
The organisation is one of the victims of the wave of cutbacks announced by regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.
The RDA has been ordered by the Government to slash its budget and last week announced a programme of £35m in savings, reducing the funding to more than 120 projects across the region.
The body is now working on an exit strategy as it has been unable to secure any alternative sources of funding. It was reliant on AWM for around three-quarters of its budget.
Two members of staff, including chief executive Adrian Passmore, will leave RegenWM this month, while the remaining seven will stay to help with the winding up of the organisation.
A statement on the organisation’s website said: “RegenWM will sadly be closing this coming December. Although we are very proud of our achievements and stand by our contribution to regeneration quality in the West Midlands, we recognise that the current climate is not a fertile one for regional organisations.
“Advantage West Midlands can no longer sustain its core investment in our work and if we combine this with the political withdrawal from regional-scale solutions with no obvious alternative sources of future funding, it means that we are now working on legacy plans and our exit strategy.”
The RegenWM website will run until December 31 and it said it was encouraging anyone who had benefited from its services to download information while it was still available.
RegenWM was set up in 2003 to address the skills shortages in the region’s regeneration sector.
Its objectives were to improve the skills and competencies of those working in the sector and to promote excellence.
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