City View: Time for Birmingham to raise its game
Oct 16 2009 by John Cranage, Birmingham Post
It’s that time of year when the Birmingham corporate world goes in for its annual bout of navel-gazing.
Questions such as “Why does Manchester always seem to be doing better?” and “Is Birmingham too close to London for London’s comfort?” float around looking for answers. It always happens when the new president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry takes office and the opportunity to take stock of the economic health of the city and the wider West Midlands presents itself.
Yesterday property entrepreneur Paul Bassi, the new Chamber president, and the also newly-installed vice-president, Jaguar Land Rover public relations supremo Simon Warr, indulged in crystal ball-gazing at the request of the Birmingham media.
The president and his VP, plus chamber chief executive Jerry Blackett, were pretty unanimous on where we stand. We are not in Manchester’s league in promoting our interests and, no, proximity to London is not a problem. At least, not such a problem as it was deemed to be when the capital was grabbing the National Football Stadium and the Millennium Dome away from the West Midlands.
The perception a region has of itself is often as important as the impression outsiders have. We haven’t had a lot to boast about recently. Our manufacturing base has taken a battering and our last remaining major car company (JLR) is gearing up to close one of its two assembly plants.
Not that Manchester has been doing any better on the industrial front. But it does have something that Birmingham lacks, a “global brand” in the shape of the all-victorious Manchester United. So why, then, did Birmingham soar seven places to 14th in the latest Cushman & Wakefield European Cities Monitor and Manchester drop two places to 16th?
The North West seems more attractive to inward investors but Birmingham scores well in affordable quality office space, availability of qualified employees, ease of access to markets, external transport links and car parking space.
Not too much to feel inferior about there. But Messrs Bassi, Blackett and Warr agreed that we have to trumpet our assets more widely and loudly.
Mr Blackett thinks that, far from being a disadvantage, our proximity to the capital can be made to work in our favour in promoting the city and region as a safety valve for its overheating economy. A good idea, but convincing London of that is going to take a bit of doing. Which means the Chamber and all the other bodies that speak for Birmingham are going to have to raise their game.
