Date: Tue 17th March, 2009
Venue: Wolverhampton Science Park, Wulfruna Street, WV1 1LY
Number of Guests Attended: 120
The Black Country is feeling the squeeze as much as anywhere during the economic downturn. But what are local decision-makers doing about it and how are the region’s more traditional companies adapting to change? Insider gathered together an influential panel and 120 guests at Wolverhampton Science Park to try and map the way forward.
The panel comprised: Mike Dell, managing director of Rubber Astic; Professor Gerald Bennett, pro vice-chancellor for research and external development at the University of Wolverhampton; Sarah Middleton, chief executive of the Black Country Consortium; and Charlotte Ritchie, director of policy at Black Country Chamber of Commerce.
The panel spoke about the perceived problems of the Black Country. Dell said: “Transport infrastructure is a major problem; people don’t go through the Black Country – they go around it.”
Middleton agreed that it was important that a change in infrastructure was vital if the Black Country was to attract the best people. She said: “It’s vitally important we get the infrastructure of the region right, on all levels.
“That means providing not only the best jobs, but also the best schools and the best cultural facilities to keep people in the region and make then want to come and live and work here.”
Ritchie argued that the Black Country needs to concentrate on the things that set it apart from the rest of the UK, and called for simplification of the planning process. She said: “We need to decrease bureaucracy and make it easier for businesses to move and expand here.”
And Bennett thought that changing the face of the manufacturing in the region would make a difference. “What we need in the Black Country is high-end manufacturing,” he said. “We need our companies to forge new prototypes and invest in research and development. Then we’ll see that manufacturing in the region is a viable proposition again.”
