A ‘GREATER Birmingham’ Local Enterprise Partnership could be built on a guarantee of a ‘fair’ distribution of resources to the Black Country to alleviate fears that Birmingham would dominate the body that will replace AWM.
A number of ‘LEPs’ are likely to replace AWM when the agency is scrapped and the budget for its successors reduced by 75%. The Government wants LEPs to be business-led, but to work with local authorities within ‘economic geographies’ to create the right economic environment for enterprise.
The leaders of the four Black Country local authorities have signalled their intention to create a single LEP between them to rival any Birmingham-based rival in size. But business leaders fear the ‘Balkanisation’ of the West Midlands, with minor turf wars getting in the way of the development of the region as a whole.
Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham and Solihull Chamber of Commerce said Birmingham may have to throw an olive branch to its neighbours.
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“That’s the challenge,” he said. “Can we create the levels of trust between these partners? Let’s be clear – the fear is that all the resources will be sucked into the Birmingham agenda. We have to create an environment where the resources we have are applied to doing the right things.
“One of the questions is how much up front the LEP agreement will have to specify the distribution of resources. I would want to do as little of that as possible but it could be that to give confidence to partners we create a formula that says there will be a fair allocation.”
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