A NORTH-EAST business support service that says it has helped to create more than 5,000 jobs in the region may be forced to make about a third of its 416 workers redundant.

The boss of the Business and Enterprise North-East (BENE) group, which has worked with more than 33,000 businesses and individual customers through the Business Link service, said it was “still very much open for business” despite the impending cuts.

BENE is an independent private sector company that operates the Regional International Trade Office, North-East England Investment Centre and Business Link, which is commissioned through development agency One North East, and contracted until March 2012.

With One North East among the groups expected to be scrapped under Government spending cuts, BENE is attempting to safeguard its long-term future by cutting costs.

Chief executive Alastair Mac- Coll said the group was about to begin consultation with its staff, which may result in the loss of up to 135 jobs by April.

He said: “We are taking the opportunity to restructure our capacity to help us exploit the considerable opportunities that we think some of the profound changes in business support and enterprise over the course of the next 18 months will create.

“This kind of change is always difficult for all those involved and we will do everything possible to reduce the impact it has on a very talented and committed team.

“We are confident these changes will help us turn our ambitions into results and generate the kind of growth that we know we are capable of in the future. It is more vital than ever before to stimulate private-sector growth and business improvement.

“We intend to contribute to that process by providing support designed for the 21st Century that helps businesses become more competitive and helps entrepreneurs start successful businesses.”

One North East director of business and industry, Ian Williams, empathised with BENE, saying that managing cuts to his own budget had been “an incredibly difficult and painful process”.