D-Day for future of AWM’s £400m assets

MINISTERIAL approval for the sell-off of Advantage West Midlands assets – valued at around £400m – could get the go ahead today.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills is expected to make its recommendations on the Assets & Liability Plan submitted by the agency, which is currently being wound down following the Government’s decision to scrap regional development agencies.

The agency has recommended that major business parks such as Ansty Park in Coventry, Longbridge and the i54 site outside Wolverhampton are retained within the public sector for future investment in order to continue generating new jobs.

However, other sites such as land at the former Jaguar works in Browns Lane, Coventry and Advantage House in Quinton – the current home of Business Link West Midlands are recommended to be retained within the public sector but with minimal public investment.

Other land interests, such as those at Bilston Urban Village, Castle Gate in Dudley and Walsall Waterfront should be disposed of in the medium term, while it has also recommended the short term disposal of other interests such as the James Bridge Copper Works in Walsall, part of Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire and the site of the former BBC studios at Pebble Mill.

Recommendations concerning what to do with various funding streams, Business Link West Midlands and online stock exchange Investbx are also included in the report.

AWM’s AWM Asset Liability Plan 2011, which is endorsed by the agency’s board, contains commercially sensitive information, including asset valuations although these have not been made public.  

However, a version of the plan which excludes the commercially sensitive information has been circulated.

AWM said the document met its three key objectives – it ensures that assets and liabilities create maximum long-term value for the West Midlands economy; it maximises receipts to Government, and it will achieve an orderly and timely closure of the agency by this time next year.

AWM said it had consulted with local authorities, local enterprise partnerships and other local partners and now just awaited sign off from BIS in order to implement the plan.

In a letter to partners, AWM chief executive Mick Laverty said: “Our approach has been to set out our rationale and vision for the assets and liabilities that we have acquired, consider options against that vision, and then recommend the option which we feel can deliver that vision and provide the best return on investment.”