Longbridge revival has seen hard work from many people
Aug 4 2008 Agenda
After Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby outlined his role in the aftermath of the collapse of MG Rover, Longbridge MP Richard Burden gives his version of events.
Mike Whitby’s article on Longbridgeappears to be a triumph of ego over memory.
As leader of Birmingham City Council, he did indeed make a contribution to the way the West Midlands’ responded to the collapse of MG Rover in 2005, just as I hope I made a contribution as the MP for the area.
However, many people who were involved will not recognise Mike’s claim to have been the personal inspiration behind pretty well everything that was achieved in the hours, days and weeks which followed the collapse of the company.
The truth is that a lot of different individuals and organisations provided the emergency assistance that was given to MG Rover workers and their families at the time. The list included statutory bodies like Advantage West Midlands and the Learning and Skills Council. It included the private sector – from Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Industry Forum and the Engineering Employers Federation to individual companies.
It included government ministers from the Prime Minister downwards and the staff of their departments.
It included the trade unions at national, regional and local levels. And it included people from the local community; people who came to the fore because of what they did in practice rather than because they held any official position.
And, of course, there were the local authorities involved – and particularly Birmingham City Council. The extra hours which neighbourhood staff put in with others to establish emergency advice mechanisms deserves at least as much mention as do the efforts of the council leadership.
No politician should claim personal credit for the actions of so many people.
Mike also over-eggs his pudding when it comes to the story of China’s investment in Longbridge. He deserves the praise he gives himself for the way in which the City Council has fostered relations between Birmingham and China and for the supportive attitude he has personally shown to both Nanjing Automobile Corporation (NAC) and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). But he does his case no credit by simultaneously denying or decrying the efforts of others in this area.
We should remember that the most effective encouragement we can give to Chinese investment and partnership with our region is not necessarily that which is most loudly publicised.
Everyone should welcome the announcement that production of MG sports cars is once again underway at Longbridge. But NAC/SAIC were also wise to make the announcement in understated tones.
The City Council’s previous encouragement of a series of overblown, but premature, media launches of NAC’s plans for Longbridge over the last two years may have produced photo opportunities for council leaders, but did little in practice to build confidence in the industry or the market when they were inevitably followed by further delays. These delays should not have adversely reflected on the Chinese company’s commitment.
It is a huge challenge to produce a car for the first time in a foreign country and for an unfamiliar market. Encouraging NAC to over-hype things in the early stages did not make its task any easier.
To recognise the real potential of what NAC/SAIC can bring to Longbridge we need to keep a sense of perspective on what is happening here. Last week’s announcement is not the return of mass car production or anything like it. As Professor David Bailey of Birmingham Business School has said in The Birmingham Post, this is small-scale production of niche sports cars. There is nothing wrong with that and the business can indeed expand in the coming years.
However, the significance of NAC/SAIC investment to jobs in Longbridge and the wider West Midlands should not be equated with the number of cars which roll of the production line. Far more relevant will be the extent to which we can encourage the Chinese to expand at Longbridge the research and development base which SAIC already has in the Midlands and how we can develop further investment and job opportunities from it.
Our region already has world class skills in performance engineering. Our universities and specialist firms can provide the innovative automotive environmental technologies which China needs to tackle its own pollution problems. In doing so Longbridge can help our region reinvent itself as a global leader in environmental engineering and create quality jobs for the future. That is why the dialogue which has already begun between Midland and Chinese Universities should be nurtured.
At Longbridge itself, this means remembering that the NAC/SAIC operation takes up only part of the former MG Rover site and that the redevelopment of the whole site can contribute to this process.
The planned relocation of Bournville College to Longbridge could be a great start. By building on existing co-operation between schools and colleges in the area we can also stimulate the skills and ambition that local young people now at school will need to achieve their potential in the job markets of the future.
We should ensure that new buildings at Longbridge should be exemplars of new environmentally sensitive ways of living and working. The public transport links within the Longbridge area should promote that vision.
It is difficult to find anybody who disagrees with this vision for Longbridge. But the theory is rarely matched by practical action by the agencies that can make a difference.
For example, both the City Council and Centro regularly claim to support the creation of a new rail station and a state-of-the-art transport interchange at Longbridge. But the project is less than prominent in their list of priorities for securing public transport investment in the region. The result could be that the Longbridge public transport vision ends up being little more than a park and ride scheme with a few more bus stops.
Longbridge is the biggest redevelopment project in our region. But, compared to other regeneration schemes such as the Big City Plan for Birmingham city centre, insufficient effort has so far been put in to securing the national or international profile that Longbridge deserves.
For example, a few months ago, Longbridge was chosen as the venue to launch a new economic strategy for the entire West Midlands.
The Minister for the West Midlands was present, as were key public and private sector partners from across the region. It was a great opportunity to showcase the potential of Longbridge. Other local authorities were represented, but senior figures from Birmingham’s own City Council were thin on the ground. All too often, the City Council’s leaders seem to lose interest when they don’t think they are going to be the centre of attention.
Whatever the reasons, it has to change. In a couple of months, the joint Birmingham/Bromsgrove Planning framework for Longbridge will be the subject of a statutory Pubic Inquiry. That framework embodies much of the vision outlined above, but it will not implement itself.
On the ground, St Modwen, the site developers, have already spent millions in clearing and restoring the site for redevelopment. But the real test will be what happens from now on.
And as we rise to this challenge, we should make sure that local people also benefit from the fruits of the redevelopment. The financial proceeds from planning gain at Longbridge should not only go into the City Council’s coffers to fund their own – no doubt worthwhile – priority projects for the area.
For the last three years, the community of south west Birmingham has lived with the consequences of the collapse of MG Rover. They deserve a direct stake in the future of Longbridge.
* Read Mike Whitby's article here >
