Greater Birmingham LEP maintains strong record on investment
MAJOR investments such as HS2, the extension of the Birmingham city centre Enterprise Zone, the £379m Growth Deal and the rise of the Midlands Engine are combining to help Greater Birmingham and Solihull achieve its economic ambitions.
The progress of the various schemes and their importance to the area’s development will be outlined today by Andy Street, chairman of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, when the LEP stages its annual general meeting.
Mr Street will outline how the partnership approach has also played a significant role in encouraging central government to back the region’s growth strategy.
The LEP chairman will also explain to the event’s audience how amid the backdrop of a growing economic renaissance, the GBSLEP has also helped attract 73 foreign direct investment projects (FDI) to the area in 2015.
And with more than 20,200 new businesses created in 2015, the LEP area can be seen as the ‘start-up capital’ of the UK outside London; helping to fuel 85,200 additional private sector jobs – with the region continually outperforming the UK’s national growth average.
Speaking ahead of today’s meeting, Mr Street said: “We are amongst the leaders for the rate of private sector job creation, are the top performing LEP area for inward investment for the second year running and importantly, have halved the numbers claiming unemployment benefit since the high of February 2012. These results have come about in part because of the collaboration which now exists across our region.”
However, he warned there was still a long way to go.
“To realise our ambition for our city region to compete on an international stage we have to deliver the huge opportunity around HS2 and above all else we must apply our collective creativity to develop the capabilities of our current and future workforce. These are real challenges, but we have momentum and five years on we’ve earned the right to be appropriately ambitious,” he added.
Keynote speaker at the event will be Lucy Williams, the Head of Regulatory Compliance for HSBC in the UK, and one of the first senior executives to relocate from London to Birmingham ahead of the bank’s new headquarters opening next year.
Attendees will also hear from LEP board directors Steve Hollis, Saqib Bhatti, Andrew Cleaves and Simon Marks, and a panel of experts including Paul Faulkner, chief executive at Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, Ahmed Farooq, chair of BPS Birmingham, Cathy Gilbert, Director of External Relations, University of Birmingham and Dawn Ward, chief executive and principal at Burton and South Derbyshire College.
