The business support sector could descend into confusion when Business Link finally closes its doors this November, its outgoing chief executive has warned.

Lorraine Holmes is one of just 60 staff out of 280 now left at Business Link West Midlands which is being wound up nationally after its funding was cut following the demise of the regional development agencies.

While the organisation will continue to operate a number of key services to the region’s business community in its last six months, Ms Holmes believes that what will replace the service is unlikely to be ideal in the short term.

“What we are talking about is a new era for business support and we will see if the market will look after itself as the Government hopes,” she said. “The notion that the private sector could and should do more is right, however is the market ready?

“The new arrangements mean we are going back to the old days with different agencies offering different things and back to a situation where businesses will find it difficult to navigate. It’s going to be a mixed picture and there is going to be some confusion.

‘‘We are trying to get around the local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) at the moment to have these discussions and to try and prompt them as to what business may need and to also advise them on our experience of what works and what doesn’t.”

Ms Holmes said it had been proposed that a national call centre and website would replace the current service and the Manufacturing Advisory Service would also remain in some guise. She said the LEPs would have to have some role in delivering support for business.

She said: “I think there is also an expectation that the local enterprise partnerships may be involved in business support but at the moment they appear to have bigger fish to fry as how they are funded is still up in the air.

"To make this work they must think outside the box and form good public and private sector partnerships to get a good suite of services going forward.”

While Business Link West Midlands’ budget has been slashed for this year from £40 million to £9 million, Ms Holmes said it was still planning on helping as many businesses in the region as possible.

Last year Business Link helped 3,802 business start ups, delivered intensive support to 6,812 and advice and one on one support to 62,870 – figures which Ms Holmes hopes to increase in the coming six months.

“We’ve had to prioritise what business appreciates and responds well to as well as trying to keep as much infrastructure in place which may be part of the offer going forward.”

“These will include phone-based information and advice although there will no longer be an expectation of a face to face meeting although people could still come in but the important thing is these will be trained advisors who will inform and advise.

“Also we’ve had lots of new legislation coming in surrounding employment laws like retirement and we have a suite of template policies that businesses can adapt for their use. There is the ‘how to’ suite of workshops that cover everything from social media to marketing to people management - these are extremely popular and when they are released they are immediately sold out.

“Business Link helped 3,500 new businesses last year and is only contracted to help 2,000 this year but we will be continuing our growth service for businesses which is really important as the region has the lowest proportion of companies delivering the growth we need to boost employment. We are limited to 300 spaces for this service so firms need to contact us by June to give us time to really deliver a proper strategic intervention in a company.”

Having consistently beaten its targets and helped tens of thousands of businesses get off the ground or grow, Ms Holmes is disappointed that the organisation wasn’t given further funding to continue to deliver what she believes is a vital and well-received service.

“I wouldn’t defend everything that Business Link has done but when you head up a blind alley, that’s how you learn,” she said. “The irony is that last year was our best ever so my great sadness is that we couldn’t have had an evolution instead of a revolution.”