By David Hillan, practice leader at Grant Thornton in Birmingham
IMAGINE a West Midlands region where everyone collaborates towards unlocking a vital component of the UK’s growth. What does it feel and look like?
This is a challenge we have been looking at for a number of months as we seek to stimulate ideas and actions that can create a vibrant economy.
The West Midlands has many strengths but we cannot afford to stand still. Whilst we have many great organisations doing great things, it’s sometimes difficult to appreciate the complete picture and businesses often tell us they’re unsure who can help them with a particular issue.
Grant Thornton recently undertook some research which found that the West Midlands could contribute £60bn to the UK economy by 2025 if it unleashes its full potential.
We also found that our region has one of highest rates of start-up businesses in the country, reflecting our entrepreneurial heritage and culture perfectly. However, compared to the UK as whole, we have a relatively high rate of such businesses failing in their early stages.
In addition, whilst Birmingham has one of youngest populations in Europe, we all know that many businesses are struggling to find people with the right skills. A key part of our region’s future success will be to ensure that our young people have the right type of skills for the future – especially when you take into account the impact that Brexit could have on workers coming to the UK.
Although these are not simple issues to solve, we believe passionately that if we work together we can all do our part in helping the West Midlands go from strength to strength.
As a first step in the process we will be hosting a West Midlands Vibrant Economy event early in the New Year to discuss the challenges facing our region and what can be done to help these to be overcome. Senior figures will stimulate discussion and identify action points with which to move forward.
A valuable part of this event will be enabling individuals from a wide range of backgrounds to build business connections which we hope will help drive their future ambitions.
From our initial meetings with key stakeholders we believe that there is a real appetite for working together to help build a more prosperous and vibrant region.
Although these are not simple issues to solve, we believe passionately that if we work together we can all do our part in helping the West Midlands go from strength to strength.
