Louise Bennett, chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: "The debate over Regional Development Agencies tends to polarise opinions but many businesses have benefited from them, including in this region through Advantage West Midlands.

"It has acted as a source of business support and regeneration funding, which we have seen with Ansty Park and with the redevelopment in Stratford, to name two here in Coventry and Warwickshire.

"There has also been success with the creation of clusters around emerging sectors such as ICT.

"In many cases, there is probably a lack of awareness from many companies about what the RDAs actually do - especially if projects haven't touched their business in anyway.

"There has been a great deal of talk about their future since the new coalition Government took office. 

"Now they have decided to go in a different direction, they cannot afford to leave a vacuum because this investment and support needs to come through to our region.

"In some instances already, we have seen announcements about the scrapping of other policies but with nothing there to fill the gap immediately. We do not want that to be the case in this instance.

"There needs to be proper, informed consultation and debate with businesses - with those who have and have not seen tangible benefits to their own company.

"There are questions about how funding would be delivered and, if a new system were to be more sub-regional, what would be the mechanism for securing funding for major regional developments.

"It would be very easy to come down on the side of either argument but, actually, the Government would be wise to gauge opinion from businesses in the region before they make an announcement either way."