The Government is being asked to pump almost £150m into a range of Midlands’ development and improvement schemes. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) from Greater Birmingham and Solihull and the Black Country say the money is needed to kick-start or fuel scores of projects across the region.
Among the bids are some almost certain to win approval when ministers agree the Growth Deal funding this summer. Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP wants support for what it describes as a “mix of game-changing schemes and shovel-ready projects aimed at creating jobs and boosting the economy”. Among them are several schemes to help the city prepare for the arrival of HS2, including building new stations at Birmingham Curzon and the Interchange.
In its 2015-16 cash bid the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP has outlined 51 priority projects, which will cost a total of £440m over the next five years. Highlighted projects will, it claims, create 41,000 new jobs by 2022 and build nearly two-million square feet of commercial floor space across Birmingham, Solihull, Wyre Forest, Redditch, Tamworth, Bromsgrove, East Staffordshire, Lichfield and Cannock Chase.
Steve Hollis is the deputy chair of the Greater Birmingham LEP. “We know there is a strong consensus about the action we need to take so our strategic economic plan looks to the future, setting out a bold plan that addresses the challenges and opportunities unique to our area,” he said. “This submission really presses our case to government — it is built on co-operation and an agreed strategy, underpinned by close collaboration between the public and private sectors.”
Meanwhile, The Black Country LEP is asking for £56m from the Single Local Growth Fund, with an additional £5.7m of its pre-allocated transport project funding for 2015-16. It claims the money is vital to securing additional funding within the high-value aerospace, automotive and building technology sectors and will help it attract an additional £41m from other public sector bodies and £102m from private sector investors — materialising a total investment for the area of more than £200m.
“We believe our Growth Deal gives us the flexibility to address the barriers limiting business growth, including under-investment in skills, accelerating businesses innovation, creating additional high-quality employment sites,” explained the chair of the Black Country LEP, Stewart Towe, who says as many as 1,900 businesses could benefit from the cash.
“The Black Country is uniquely placed to create up to 5,000 new jobs in manufacturing. We have a strong manufacturing base, supply chain networks, and businesses that export globally from a location that is ideally situated at the heart of the UK transport network,” he added.
Projects from specific growth sectors are also included in the funding requests. In a joint bid the Greater Birmingham, Coventry & Warwickshire and Black Country LEPs want to build a life sciences campus at Selly Oak.
Enterprise partnerships across Britain, which have submitted their applications as part of the competitive process, will be informed of the Government’s funding allocations in July.
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