Groups supporting enterprise in Birmingham have asked the city council not to go it alone on a bid to access a £300 million fund for start-up businesses.

The city council has announced plans to submit a second bid to the Government's Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) after its first failed to win any funding.

Announced by Gordon Brown in his 2005 Budget speech, LEGI aims to increase the number of entrepreneurs and businesses in disadvantaged communities.

Somewhere around 80 councils applied for funding in the first round. Only 15 councils were successful, including Coventry, which received £12.6 million.

Despite the failure of Birmingham's first attempt the city council said it was optimistic about its chances in the next round and will be submitting a bid in time for the September deadline.

Some business groups have warned that if the council is not prepared to work more closely with them, the bid could fail.

"The first bid was on its way in before the council consulted us," said Bill Jones from the West Midlands Minority Ethnic Business Forum.

"A lot of the city wards are now predominately ethic minority communities and our understanding was that the Government wanted the LEGI bids to concentrate on these areas. "But the council didn't appear to have anyone advising them on these communities and they seemed to be a little bit out of touch.

"I hope this time around they consult with us much earlier in the process."

Mr Jones comments were echoed by a source from one of the council's key partners.

"There were bags of reasons why the original bid was unsuccessful," he said.

"However, a big one was that the council wasn't strong on working in partnership with other organisations.

"It was one of the reasons why Coventry was successful - I don't think they had a more innovative bid, but it did have stronger partnerships.

"It is important that everyone works together on the next bid."

But Birmingham City Council hit back at the claims and insisted it had consulted with a wide range of people on both bids.