Throughout its life Advantage West Midlands has been committed to continually improving its performance and maximising its contribution to economic development, regionally and nationally.
- £3 billion of UK and EU funding invested to help develop the West Midlands economy, delivering a return of £8 for every £1 invested
- 150,000 businesses assisted to improve their performance
- 10,000 businesses created
- 140,000 jobs created or safeguarded
- £2 billion of private sector investment levered in
- 1,200 hectares of brownfield land reclaimed or redeveloped
Advantage West Midlands always achieved or exceeded the targets set by government.
Independent evaluation of the Agency’s investment programmes showed that they generated a return of more than £8 for every £1 we invested.
The National Audit Office awarded the Agency the highest possible rating for organisational performance, in 2007 and again in 2010.
This was backed up by an HM Treasury study that showed the Agency had one of the lowest running costs of all RDAs and similar-sized public sector bodies.
In 2011 Advantage West Midlands won the coveted Midlands Excellence Award. The award is based upon the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model, used by a wide range of organisations to help improve their performance.
Further information about the Agency's performance is provided in the following sections.
Since 2007, as a key element of its continuous improvement programme, the Agency has entered the annual Midlands Excellence Awards. This is widely recognised as being one of the most rigorous, respected and prestigious assessments of organisational performance.
The Agency achieved “Investor in Excellence” status at its first attempt and went on to improve its score in every subsequent year. In 2009/10 the Agency was a finalist, winning two awards – ‘Most Improved Organisation’ and ‘Highly Commended’. The Agency went on to win the top prize in the 2010/11 Awards, with a particularly high scoring entry.
In March 2009, the Government’s evaluation of RDAs showed that Advantage West Midlands delivered £7.45 of benefit to the region for every £1 invested. Subsequent independent evaluations demonstrated that this already impressive return increased to £8.14 for every £1 invested in later years. This 9% rise was due to the Agency increasingly targeting its efforts and resources on activities that had been shown to deliver the greatest beneficial impact for the region’s economy.
The investment programme evaluation reports are available from the Resource Archive alongside other assessments and evaluations, which demonstrate that Advantage West Midlands has consistently been a top performing Regional Development Agency.
The department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned the National Audit Office (NAO) to undertake two detailed assessments of Regional Development Agencies' performance. The "Independent Performance Assessment" was undertaken in 2006-7, followed up by the "Independent Supplementary Review" in 2009-10. In each, Advantage West Midlands achieved the maximum possible rating for its performance.
The National Audit Office produced a best practice guide following the Independent Supplementary Review. In it, the NAO commended Advantage West Midlands in a number of key areas - including continuous improvement and efficiency.
The NAO guide also states that examples of good practice developed by AWM should be passed on to other public bodies tackling economic development and regeneration.
HM Treasury’s 2009 study "Smarter government: Putting the frontline first" concluded that, in terms of their running costs, RDAs were amongst the most efficient of all government departments and larger public agencies.
Furthermore, throughout its lifetime Advantage West Midlands has kept its administration costs at or below 7% of total budget, making it one of the most efficient of all the Regional Development Agencies.