by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Business support faces a huge shake-up across the county after Serco emerged as the preferred bidder for the south east Business Link operation.

The multi-million pound deal would hand the services giant a third Business Link operation to add to London and the South West.

The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) announced the decision after a lengthy sifting process that left bosses at the Kent operation pondering its future.

Some 90 staff at the county’s Business Link and Business Support Kent headquarters in Kings Hill, West Malling, are braced for a period of uncertainty until they know how the changes will affect them, and whether any will lose their jobs.

Losing bidders like the Kent operation are allowed a 10-day so-called "Alcatel" period in which to challenge SEEDA’s decision or to find out why they lost.

SEEDA, which funds and runs the Business Link service, claimed that Serco would deliver an "enhanced" support service for three years from next April.

It promised "more investment in frontline advice, a service that will reach more of the region’s businesses, and more intensive one-to-one tailored support.

SEEDA chief executive Pam Alexander said: "We are confident that the new service will provide consistent, high quality support to meet the needs of all businesses in the region."

Business Link in Kent, which already provides services beyond the county, declined to comment until the Alcatel period is over.

But service user Richard Romain, owner of marketing consulting firm Answers and Solutions Kent, based in Maidstone, is worried that the decision could further damage "localness."

"Business Link has considerably upped their game over the years and had got to a point where they were quite effective but my criticism is that when they made the last lot of changes they regionalised it so the local expertise you could rely on in Kent, from Kent was diluted," he said."If Serco have the contract for the whole south east, than I see that dilution continuing or getting worse."

Business Link helped 145,000 customers across the region last year and has made 13,000 healthchecks to date. Some 18,000 clients agreed a growth action plan with its experts. According to surveys, 94 per cent of all customers in the last quarter of 2008-09 were satisfied with the service they received.