Redditch needs a Town Deal, MP argues

Redditch should have a deal with the government to regenerate and create jobs, an MP has argued.

Rachel Maclean, Conservative MP for Redditch, argued in the House of Commons that Redditch should get a similar deal to Grimsby to help regenerate the town.

Grimsby is trailblazing a “Town Deal” partnership for Greater Grimsby with central and local government, the private sector and local communities over the next 10 years, with the aim of creating new jobs and investment.

“If Grimsby can have a town deal, why can Redditch not? I have lobbied Treasury Ministers for that, and I would like to see that idea taken forward,” Maclean said during a debate on the government’s Industrial Strategy.

She also used the example of the ReWyre Initiative, a partnership between public, private and voluntary sectors to improve Kidderminster and the Wyre Forest District.

“We look close to home, to the Worcestershire town of ​Kidderminster and its ambitious and successful ReWyre project led by Conservative councillors, and see no reason why we could not adopt a similar model to unlock the potential of Redditch,” Macean said.

“I would like to see the devolution deal in the West Midlands Combined Authority unlock further potential in our region. I believe that Redditch can harness that growth.”

Maclean added that she would also like to see a free enterprise zone or a free port, an issue Richard Harrington, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said in the debate he was happy to discuss.

Maclean said Reddditch’s population “wish to be proud of Redditch for what it can do in the future, not just what it has done in the past”.

“That is why it is great to have a framework to tackle structural issues. It is not a world-class region like Oxford, Cambridge or London, so it needs some help to secure its future,” she said.

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