EEDA - East of England Development Agency

EEDA has a clear focus - to improve the economy of the East of England. At the best of times, this means putting in place the business support and funding packages to encourage entrepreneurial activity and innovation, the right infrastructure and training to attract and retain businesses and targeting areas where additional investment can really make a difference to people and communities.

In the more challenging economic period the region is currently facing, we are even more acutely aware of the pro-active role we must take in supporting businesses and the jobs of local people. This is why - despite the shifting political and regulatory environments that EEDA faces - we have determinedly re-focused in the first half of this year on taking practical steps to deliver direct support to the region’s businesses.

Let me highlight some of them:

• a £10 million regional economic package with a range of financial and other support for business
• a new simplified access to finance offering that helps businesses test their ideas, find new markets and fund innovative products and services
• additional support for entrepreneurs - to help bring new business ideas to market
• a new business map to make it easy for businesses to access public sector support via www.bizmapeast.co.uk
• a new £6.2 million pound package - Beyond 2010 - to support businesses looking to re-train staff and provide training support for staff facing redundancy
• playing a major role in the formation of the new regional economic forum.

This is in addition to the good work that EEDA-funded Business Link is doing to advise companies across the region on a day-to-day basis. Business Link has built on its strong platform last year to deliver another solid half year - with over 89,000 enterprises, so far, helped to find their way to the advice they need.

Likewise, other EEDA-supported programmes, including MAS East and Women’s Enterprise, continue to deliver excellent levels of support to improve business efficiency and foster the development of female entrepreneurship respectively.

Underpinning our business focus is a range of programmes that form our new Corporate Plan.

Underpinning our business focus is a range of programmes that form our new Corporate Plan. These feed directly from the new regional economic strategy - launched in September - which sets out targets for economic growth, skills, employment, greenhouse gas emissions, resource efficiency and reducing inequalities through to 2031.

I am pleased to report that we are making good progress in all seven programme areas - more details can be found within this report. The breadth and depth of EEDA’s involvement and impact at local, regional and national level is extensive. This report highlights a number of major projects where EEDA has played a critical role in delivering real change during the last six months.

Looking forward, we have a number of ambitious targets to hit by the year end. We remain confident that these are achievable and we look forward to working with our partners to continue delivering impactful and valued programmes across the region, despite the recent budget cuts from central government.

We will continue to punch above our weight and respond positively and quickly to change. We are already taking steps to re-shape our organisation and our programmes to align our activities more closely with the changing environment. And, we will continue to work with regional partners to make the case to central government for increased investment in the East of England.

Deborah Cadman
Chief Executive
EEDA