SENIOR managers at Newport & Gwent Enterprise are tightening their belts after the Welsh Development Agency cut funding to the agency by 40 per cent.

The shortfall is believed to amount to almost £300,000. Deputy managing director Jon Hughes said the cut would lead to a recruitment freeze and less time being spent with clients.

He said: "For the first time in five years we will not be recruiting any new advisers.

"But we will not be making any redundancies, as we will shuffle the pack and move some of our people to other programmes."

It is believed that the WDA wants NGE to concentrate on the Objective One areas of Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent and parts of Caerphilly while cutting back on Newport and Monmouthshire.

However, Mr Hughes said the agency would resist this pressure and maintain an equal-handed response throughout the five local authorities. "We don't intend to turn any businesses away because we have commitments to the local community and to all the local authorities.

"But what this may mean is that we spend less time with each business we help.

"For example, if we spent 10 to 20 hours with a start-up in the past, now it might be more like five hours."

NGE employs 67 people and Mr Hughes believes that to some extent it has been a l Continued on page 2