Business
Accelerate reaches the end of the road
Duncan Tift Business Desk 29 Mar 10
A business support programme that has helped to sustain the West Midlands’ automotive sector through some of its darkest days will cease to exist after Wednesday. The Accelerate programme has helped hundreds of firms in the vital component supply industry but it is finishing because of the squeeze on public sector funding.
Component suppliers throughout the region had urged Advantage West Midlands to maintain funding for the programme, headed by Rachel Eade, but the cutbacks imposed on the agency by Westminster were so rigid that it was forced to prioritise other schemes such as Business Link and the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS)…