The Chamberlain News

Greater Birmingham LEP’s growth plan underpinned by ‘we will deliver’ pledge

To truly succeed where others have failed, though, GBSLEP must do far better than the former regional development agency Advantage West Midlands. AWM produced magisterial strategies, but never managed to move the region out of its basement position for poor economic growth.

The fact is that even in the good times, when other English regions were creating jobs and wealth, the West Midlands was lagging behind, and continues to do so today on all sorts of measures ranging from GVA per head to high unemployment and low skills levels. To that extent, there is a lot of catching up to do.

GBSLEP’s strategy document talks about three pillars of activity where the drive for growth will be concentrated. These are:

• Business – the business environment across the LEP, including the critical issues underpinning growth such as business support, access to finance, the regulatory environment and inward investment.

• People – the LEP’s talent pool and how it is aligned to business opportunities.

• Place – the sense of place and infrastructure that underpins our ambitions, including connectivity, the Enterprise Zone and Enterprise Belt, housing and employment land, planning, environment, cultural assets, and quality of life that create our appeal.

It does not get around to explaining, though, where the business support is going to come from and how it is going to be an improvement on previous much-criticised schemes, or how the talent pool is to be aligned to business opportunities.

The meat of the document is contained in the section entitled Making it Happen, with the LEP identifying three primary roles that it must play. These are:

• Enabler – bringing together existing partners and organisations within the area, and supporting and guiding their activity to deliver the city region’s priorities.