We still want a Birmingham and Black Country region

Aug 5 2009 Agenda

Peter Mathews questions just how joined-up the region has to be before the Government takes notice.

Birmingham and the Black Country recently missed out on City Region status because Hazel Blears, secretary of state for communities and local government at the time, considered the region “not joined-up enough”.

I was amazed when I saw a copy of the her letter saying we had failed to be selected for the pilot scheme as well as Accelerated Development Zones – but I wondered where her information came from.

One would imagine that such an important decision would have been made after careful research and free discussion with all parties concerned, but the Black Country Chamber were never consulted on the matter.

The information and subsequent decision not to award City Region status obviously didn’t come from a source directly connected with the Black Country or Birmingham business sectors.

As president of Black Country Chamber I have consulted with the Chamber board and the Birmingham City Region bid has our full support. The agreement that we have in principle is that we have Birmingham and the Black Country as the regional title. We have never been against this and I’m astonished that we didn’t get status, but more astonished that we were not even consulted on the process.

Unfortunately, to date, the Black Country has not been recognised properly for the contribution it has made to the UK in manufacturing, so the new Ordnance Survey map at least offers a physical manifestation of the region.

I’m surprised that it’s taken us centuries to get where we are now and I’m grateful to the Ordnance Survey for their assistance in making the map a reality.

We will be celebrating the publication of the map in our Chamber Celebrate Success and Awards event on September 11 at Wolverhampton Racecourse, with Lord Jones of Birmingham as our lead guest.

The Black Country is known worldwide as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, but it is Birmingham that is now known globally as a centre for commerce and industry.

“Birmingham and the Black Country” sounds right – this is a position that, as businesses in the region, we should support as we reapply for the new status.

Terms like “Greater Birmingham” smack of the 1970s, and what works well for Manchester – which has been attempting to hijack Birmingham’s second city status for several years – won’t necessarily work for us. The Black Country contributed equally with Birmingham to the industrialisation of Great Britain and the developing world and it is important that we are recognised, not only for our part in history, but also our place today as an incubator and facilitator of entrepreneurialism and new and developing technologies.

I believe that it is vital to bring our combined regional strengths in a global market to bear on the future prosperity of this region. There is a huge skills gap that has been brought about by a number of factors, not least the lack of investment in training in the region over the past two decades and we must address this by working together with the university, colleges and Government office and skills providers to narrow the gap.

We must realise the importance of the global market and how we work within it. The days when we traded with people solely within our region have long gone.

With the advent of the recession in China and the Middle East, I sense a feeling that we are again becoming parochial. If we go this route we are lost. We must always trade globally to be successful, and the best base to start from is regional unity.

Telford is keen to be involved in City Region status, as the M54 provides a corridor between Telford and Wolverhampton, with i54 at the gate, which will provide not only geographic linkage with the national motorway network, but also flowing business opportunities between the Black Country, Birmingham and Telford.

I hope that Coventry will consider attaching itself to the bid as well, as strength in numbers is important.

The main decision behind the Black Country Map was to attempt to get recognition for the Black Country itself, not simply on the map, but for the businesses, industries, commercial enterprises and people of the Black Country, our contribution to history and our promise for the future.

For example, if you’re operating out of Kuala Lumpur and looking to do business with the industrialised centre of the UK and you can’t find the area on the map, there’s a pretty good chance you won’t go there!

I want to engage with Advantage West Midlands to ensure that the City Region message we send out to Government is a strong one, with all parties joined up and a common goal in sight. We need their support to accomplish this.

I’m looking forward to welcoming chief executive Mick Laverty and the team, including new chairman Sir Roy McNulty when he takes over in September, over here a little more, so they can see how the Black Country operates. I honestly believe the decision to not award City Region status was borne out of a misunderstanding of how this region works.

Many of the companies in Birmingham and the Black Country support and supply each other, particularly in the automotive sector. This is why the smaller operatives in that sector have been hurt so hard by the recession.

I am, though, naturally disappointed by AWM’s decision to cut £8 million of funding to Phase 4 of the Wolverhampton Science Park and the i-Central development. It is vital to continue to invest in our home-grown talent in order to survive and grow both now and post-recession, and we need the support of our regional development authority to help rebuild this region as a matter of urgency.

We do not want to continue to lose our creative, hi-tech engineering and digital industries to other parts of the UK, let alone abroad, but we need to give these businesses a reason for staying here.

I am particularly passionate about businesses receiving help and guidance in building and growing their companies. There is a lot of government money put into Business Link and other schemes, and we are calling on Business Link to get out and engage with business leaders more.

We must ensure that our members and the business community as a whole are able to access help and advice at this difficult time, and Business Link needs to simplify the process of how information and support is delivered.

Birmingham has undergone a transformation over the past ten years. The advantage of this is, what the city already did brilliantly – manufacturing, computer-based and hi-tech industries, engineering, music, theatre – has now had a spotlight shone on to it which has given the rest of us in the region, as contributors, the opportunity to bathe in the reflected glow.

Black Country Chamber will firmly back Birmingham in its bid to become Britain’s first City of Culture, and we’re delighted that culture secretary Ben Bradshaw is behind us as a city region.

In a recession, our long-proven abilities to innovate, problem-solve and create out of nothing in response to a need are in great demand, but we must be supported by inward investment in order to help fledgling research and development-based businesses bring their expertise to bear and their product to market, otherwise we will lose our talent, our skilled people and eventually our power base.

We owe future generations an opportunity to continue to create history.

* Peter Mathews CMG, president of Black Country Chamber of Commerce, is founder and director of Lye-based Black Country Metals, president of the Midland World Trade Forum and a board member of the British Metals Recycling Association. Mr Mathews is the chief campaigner behind the official Ordnance Survey Landranger Series Birmingham and the Black Country map 139, to be launched in mid October.