RGF funding will be "engine for growth" of West Midlands economy

REGIONAL Growth Fund settlements for the West Midlands will be a major engine for growth, one of the successful bidders has said.

The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group (BCCG) said it believed the £15.7m pledged to upgrade the A45 corridor adjacent to Birmingham Airport could create up to 10,000 jobs.
 
Jerry Blackett, BCCG chief executive, said: “This upgrade will be an enabler of the M42 corridor as an engine for growth.”
 
Under the scheme, the A45 will be made a three-lane highway, with dedicated public transport improvements, and it will also have various mechanisms put in place to prevent flooding.
 
The successful bid brought together funding from both public and private sources, including the local authorities in Solihull and Birmingham, Centro and from the airport.
 
“We were delighted to offer ourselves as the lead body for the bid, because it is so important to our members and to businesses in the region,” said Mr Blackett, who added the regenerative impact of the scheme would lead to more businesses setting up in the locality.

Global engineering group Alstom UK was another successful bidder. It is receiving £4m for an investment programme at its Alstom Grid facilities in Stafford.

The site, one of Alstom Grid’s five global technology centres, develops advanced High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) solutions enabling highly efficient electricity exchange between networks, high voltage transmission over very long distances and also for the connection of large scale renewable power generation projects, such as offshore wind farms, to electricity grids.

Commenting on the successful bid, Stephen Burgin, Alstom UK’s country president, said: “We are delighted to be receiving this investment support, which is a major boost to expanding our Alstom Grid business in Stafford as well as helping to reinforce our continued commitment to the region.”

Richard Halstead, Midlands region director at EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said the awards to Alstom, Jaguar Land Rover and Bosch Thermotechnology were all signs of the Government’s commitment to manufacturing.
 
He said: “Given the limited resources available, this is a welcome focus on supporting investment in research and development and backing high quality jobs in growing manufacturing sectors. The next stage must be to work in tandem with the national growth strategy to create a competitive business environment which will stimulate additional private sector investment across all regions.
 
“The backing of substantial projects of key importance to the Midlands region such as research and development in the automotive sector will bring significant benefits and help to secure jobs for the long term.”

According to Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, deputy chairman of the panel that assessed the bids, the winning projects succeeded because of their ability to create jobs.

“I think a lot of people didn’t really appreciate the criteria, even some of those who put the bids in,” he said.

“The object of the fund is not to be another RDA, those comparisons are completely mistaken. We are about building private sector jobs in regions over dependent on the public sector. You will see bids that have been successful have overwhelmingly been to private sector firms that are expanding, developing R&D; it is all about building up the private sector.”

Sir Ian said it was not the role of the fund to spend money on major regeneration or infrastructure schemes except where it could be shown they will deliver employment.

“If there are infrastructure schemes that open up a lot of private investment and create a lot of private sector jobs then we will consider them.”

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