ANTICIPATING THE STRATEGY FOR THE WEST MIDLANDS

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ANTICIPATING THE STRATEGY FOR THE WEST MIDLANDS

• Rose Poulter
• West Midlands Stakeholders Conference
• 25 September 2009

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Current Environment

• Economy
• Government
• Regional Issues
• West Midlands Agenda
• JSIB shadow Joint Strategy Investment Board
• RFA Regional Funding Advice
• SFA Skills Funding Agency
• YPLA Young Peoples Learning Agency

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Current Environment

• Economy
• Government
• Regional Issues
• SNR/SIRS/JSIB/RFA/SF/YPLA !
• SNR Sub National Review
• SIRS Single Integrated Regional Strategy
• JSIB shadow Joint Strategy Investment Board
• RFA Regional Funding Advice
• SFA Skills Funding Agency
• YPLA Young Peoples Learning Agency

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West Midlands GDP per head fell below the UK
average in 1976 and has never regained that level
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In 1980s and 1990s the regions growth was in
line with or marginally above the UK average
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Since the late 1990s regional growth has been
lower than the UK average
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The West Midlands has seen the sharpest fall in
business output of the English regions over the
last year
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The West Midlands now has by far the highest
unemployment rate in the UK, up 4.2 points in a
year
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The region has some of the highest levels of
inactivity and disadvantage

• Region is home to 6 of the top 10 highest
  claimant proportions
• Birmingham, Ladywood
• Birmingham, Hodge Hill
• Birmingham, Sparkbrook Small Heath
• Birmingham, Erdington
• Wolverhampton South East
• Liverpool, Walton
• Kingston upon Hull West Hessle
• Birmingham, Yardley
• Bootle
• Birkenhead

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• Approx 12,300 affordable homes are need per
  annum, 4,000 were built in 2007-8
• 35 of children live in low income households
• Highest infant mortality rate in UK
• Life expectancy 83 Wilmcote 73 Stoke
• Annual estimated cost of congestion 2.2bn
• 2007 Flooding - West Midlands lost between 159m
  - 182m in GVA

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Current Environment

• Economy
• Government
• Regional Issues
• West Midlands Agenda
• JSIB shadow Joint Strategy Investment Board
• RFA Regional Funding Advice
• SFA Skills Funding Agency
• YPLA Young Peoples Learning Agency

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Government Perspective

• Building Britains Future
• Cleaning Up Politics
• Jobs And Skills
• A New Economy
• More Power For Patients
• More Power For Parents
• Investing In Young People
• Early Years
• Affordable Housing
• Crime And Policing
• Immigration And Citizenship
• A Low Carbon Future
• International Leadership

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Sub National Review July 2007

• RDA and Local Government Leaders Board have joint
  responsibility for developing and submitting the
  new Single Integrated Regional Strategy to
  Ministers. (No RES or RSS)
• Each region required to produce
  Implementation/Delivery Plans.
• Local economic assessment statutory duty for
  upper tier local authorities/ duty to cooperate
  among all authorities.
• Stakeholder engagement fundamental to development
  of Strategy, but not part of the sign off
  process.
• No scrutiny role for Local Government, this is
  left to Regional Select Committees.
• RDAs not required to delegate to Local
  Authorities joint investment planning by RDAs
  and LA Leaders Board will secure appropriate
  delivery mechanisms.
• (Local Democracy, Economic Development
  Construction Bill October 2009)

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Regional Strategies July 2009

• Coverage
• Overview of key opportunities and challenges
• Delivering sustainable economic growth
• Meeting housing needs and demands
• Climate change mitigation and energy targets
• Priorities for regeneration investment and
  intervention
• Strategic requirements and provision for
  infrastructure
• Other regionally relevant policy areas

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Conservative Party Perspective

• Control Shift
• Devolve power from regional quangos back down
  to local councils. We will
• abolish all regional planning and housing powers
  exercised by regional government
• strip the Regional Development Agencies of their
  powers over planning and give local governments
  the power to establish their own local enterprise
  partnerships to take over development functions
  from RDAs
• Caroline Spelman letter
• Local Government Housing Bill
• Cameron Test of Quangos - Technical Advice,
  Impartial Decisions and Transparency

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The Current Environment

• Economy
• Government
• Regional Issues
• West Midlands Agenda
• JSIB shadow Joint Strategy Investment Board
• RFA Regional Funding Advice
• SFA Skills Funding Agency
• YPLA Young Peoples Learning Agency

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West Midlands Agenda

• Need to-
• Articulate the challenges facing the West
  Midlands and the policies required to secure
  sustainable economic growth and regeneration.
• Develop a Strategy for the West Midlands and
  Investment Plan statutory or voluntary
• Demonstrate real wins for the West Midlands.
• Build on Regional Funding Advice by aligning
  investment programmes and secure a robust
  investment planning process with regional and
  business partners, sub-regions, local government
  and Government agencies.
• Secure strong leadership of the West Midlands
  between AWM and local government through the
  Joint Strategy and Investment Board.

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RFA West Midlands Regional Funding Advice

• 1 billion pa of expenditure for Economic
  Development, housing and transport (not new
  money).
• Economic Strategy and Spatial Strategy provide
  strategic framework for spend.
• 20 Impact Investment Locations provide headline
  focus but other activities eg clusters and market
  towns also funded.
• Genuine partnership approach in the West Midlands
  and welcomed by Government.
• Big challenge is to performance manage, to
  deliver and get biggest bang for our bucks.

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SKILLS - Skills Funding Agency Young People's
Learning Agency

• SFA
• AWM - strategic and operational responsibility
  for adult skills training.
• Opportunity to secure real traction over skills
  budget.
• YPLA
• Role - support to Local Authorities for 16 19
  skills.
• Opportunity to influence agenda.
• Prize
• Set targets and measures of success which relate
  to the West Midlands agenda and the new Strategy
  for the West Midlands

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Looking Forward

• Understand the scale of the challenge facing the
  region
• Work together
• Deliver-
• the Governments agenda
• added value to Local Government and local
  initiaitives
• the significant projects eg performance manage
  the Impact Investment Locations.
• Regional architecture changing
• Develop a Vision for the new Strategy for the
  West Midlands.
• Build up and enhance the role of the Joint
  Strategy Investment Board - Leadership.

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