ADVANTAGE West Midlands has no idea if £300,000 it spent at this year’s MIPIM property event in the south of France attracted a single penny of inward investment for the region.

The regional development agency made the admission during a grilling by government officials looking into how it spent £330m of taxpayers’ money this year.

Officials raised a number of key issues, including the ill-fated West Bromwich arts centre The Public as well as the hundreds of jobs currently at stake in the Ericsson plant at Coventry.

Questioned about £300,000 it spent on a property “speed dating”-style event in Cannes last year, AWM chief executive Mick Laverty said he was unable to quantify the amount of return from the investment. AWM funded an executive apartment used for industry officials to network.

Mr Laverty said: “We showcase what the West Midlands has to offer against fierce competition from all over the globe.”

But he admitted measurement of the initiative’s success was “qualitative”, adding: “It’s very difficult to track exactly what’s happened.”