Black Country outlines plans to create 97,000 jobs through City Deal bid
BUSINESS leaders in the Black Country have set out how they intend to seize greater control of the area’s economic destiny as part of its City Deal bid.
The City Deal for the Black Country focuses on strengthening the area’s existing supply chain and maximising the new opportunities available to it. The policy, which aims to create 97,000 jobs, has been dubbed ‘Built in the Black Country: Sold Around the World’.
The move will see business leaders forge stronger links with the sub-region’s four councils and its Local Enterprise Partnership and the LEP is hoping the government will devolve greater spending powers to the area to enable it to implement policy on the local level.
The area has been invited by the government to submit a proposal as part of the second wave of City Deal bids. In the West Midlands, the government has also invited bids from Stoke on Tent and Staffordshire, together with Coventry and Warwickshire.
The overarching goal is to create an additional 97,000 jobs across all sectors in the Black Country using the HVM as a catalyst for growth.
Stewart Towe, chair of the Black Country LEP, said: “We welcome the government’s City Deal concept and agree that local powers and local control over resources and funding is what is needed to attract private sector investment and support economic growth. The four Black Country councils have a history of close working and the LEP also covers this geographical area so the Black Country City Deal makes absolute sense.”
The Black Country is striving to attract investment in High Value Manufacturing (HVM) as a catalyst for the wider economic growth of the area.
The results have so far are impressive, with major investment from global companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, which has pledged hundreds of jobs to the area with the development of its new £355m engine plant at a site close to Wolverhampton.
That proposal has received a further boost today with the announcement by JLR that it has appointed 150 new apprentices, many of which will find their way to the new plant. The new apprentices are on top of the 800 new jobs announced earlier this week at Solihull.
The City Deal strategy is to increase the Black Country Gross Value Added (GVA) from High Value Manufacturing (HVM) by a total of £3.1bn, underpinned by 75,000 jobs.
The LEP said this built on the Black Country’s track record in designing, building and exporting components and products such as aircraft control systems, turbo technology and an extensive range of automotive components.
Manufacturing is more significant in the Black Country economy than the UK average, constituting 15% of companies and 21% of the workforce. This compares with the national picture of 8% of companies and 13% of the workforce.
To achieve the objective, the LEP said the Black Country would provide a bespoke service and an environment that would help companies to consolidate, develop and grow by ensuring they have access to a skilled workforce and major sites and modern premises.
The focus of the Black Country City Deal builds on existing work with companies in the HVM sector and proposals include:
• The development of a new package to meet the training needs of HVM companies, including more advanced apprenticeships in engineering and manufacturing, supporting the progression from level 2 to level 3 and level 4;
• funding for SMEs in the HVM sector to train and retrain their staff in NVQs in topics such as Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Technical Support for which there is a pressing need;
• collaboration between providers and businesses to secure investment in the equipment necessary meet HVM training needs;
• a suite of self-standing modules and units which can be made available quickly in response to specific training requirements (such as PLC, CNC or CAD).
• establishing a Black Country Land Development Fund (BCLDF) by the local authorities combining their assets to generate a pipeline of high quality employment sites for HVM businesses.
