New regional venture formed to bid for contracts in post-Business Link phase

Reed in Partnership and Exemplas Holdings have established Enterprise Growth Solutions to work with the forthcoming local enterprise partnerships, which will replace some of the work of the regional development agencies. The pair were the shareholders in Y&H IDB, which held the 35m-a-year Yorkshire Forward contract to deliver Business Link Yorkshire.

A spokeswoman for Business Link Yorkshire said the move "separates responsibility from delivering the current contract from the possibility of being involved in post-Business Link opportunities".

Chairman Tony Pedder said: "This separation allays any

concerns that our partners might have that engaging with us might prejudice their future procurement processes. It also enables any future arrangements to build on and capture the knowledge, intelligence

and skills that have been developed under the current arrangements.

"It ensures that my fellow independent non-executive directors and particularly our experienced chief executive, Helen West, and her team of experts can contribute towards the development of the very best future, post-Business Link support arrangements for businesses across all parts of Yorkshire and the Humber.

"At the same time, we will do our very best to deliver the support services for which we are currently contracted right up to the very last day of our existence, for the benefit of those businesses and start-ups who need and value our support."

The Government has said that the regional Business Link contracts will be wound down with the regional development agencies by 2012.