The South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) was one of the nine Regional Development Agencies set up by the United Kingdom government in 1999. Its purpose was to lead the development of a sustainable economy in South West England, investing to unlock the region's business potential. It was abolished along with all the other RDAs on 31 March 2012, with some of its functions being replaced by local enterprise partnerships.

The SWRDA covered the following areas:

The head office was in Exeter with other offices in Bristol, Plymouth and Truro.

Each of England's RDAs was required to work with partners in the region to draw together a Regional Economic Strategy. This document set out for the whole region how the RDA's statutory objectives would be met and the region developed. These strategies were owned by the whole region, not just the RDA. They provided the context for other economic development and regeneration activity in the region and provided government departments with a framework that set out the direction that policies in the South West should support.

The SWRDA's plans were aligned with three strategic objectives:

The SWRDA invested in and supported over 5,800 economic development projects, large and small, across the region during its lifetime. Significant examples include:

Figures published in 2010 showed that the SWRDA’s work had:

In 2010/11 the SWRDA invested £239 million (its largest spend in a single year) in initiatives across South West England from its own funds and from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), in all benefiting over 500 live projects.