THE key to economic survival in the wake of the break up of AWM is for Birmingham and the Black Country to avoid a ‘turf war’, according to a leading economist.
The area should follow the example set by Greater Manchester where, according to a leading local business academic, the 10 boroughs work together rather than against one another.
Following the scrapping of Regional Development Agencies, the Manchester boroughs have already agreed the make-up of the Local Enterprise Partnerships that will be created in their place.
David Bailey, professor in international business strategy and economics at Coventry University, told TheBusinessDesk.com: “The risk really is too much fragmentation of the region into small units. Locally, we need to have the key players reflecting the economic footprint of the city.
“If you’re not going to have a regional economic body, at least have a city region economic development body for the ‘Greater Birmingham’ area, i.e. both Birmingham and the Black Country.
“If we can get local authorities to agree on it, then in principal it would work. It’s realisable if there’s political will and it’s going to require political leadership to make it happen. Can the local authority politicians put aside their rivalries?
“The fallout from the scrapping of AWM reads like a lamentable script from a tired soap opera.” Read Marc Reeves’s blog here
“If you go abroad local people have heard of Birmingham but they haven’t heard of Wolverhampton or the Black Country.
“It gives us space to market internationally and more space to lobby Government and politicians on the amount of funding that each of the constituent local authorities could get by being part of this big unit.”
Professor Bailey’s comments reflect those issued by the chief executive of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Jerry Blackett in an exclusive interview with TheBusinessDesk.com.
Mr Blackett said he was working with Birmingham City Council chief executive Stephen Hughes and other business groups to create a draft proposal for an LEP to cover Birmingham, the Black Country, South Staffordshire and Solihull.
