Insider Media Limited

Two of the West Midlands’ LEPs have stepped up the pace as the organisations prepare to establish themselves in place of the doomed regional development agencies. The Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP is set to become one of the largest in the country as Redditch and Wyre Forest have announced their intentions to join the partnership. The revelation comes as Insider spoke to the leader of the shadow board of the Worcestershire LEP, which has unveiled the line-up of its 18-strong business board.

The greater Birmingham LEP – which comprises Birmingham, Solihull, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Tamworth, Bromsgrove and Cannock Chase – has announced that North Worcestershire councils Redditch and Wyre Forest are now set to join after a meeting of the LEP development board.

Interim chairman Bridget Blow said: “We are delighted at this development and excited to work with business and local authorities from North Worcestershire in the interests of our local businesses and communities.

“The Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP is now one of the largest in the country with a population of two million people and 950,000 existing jobs.

“We have the enthusiasm and drive to work together to create and support a globally competitive knowledge economy –which is the natural home for Europe’s entrepreneurs and wealth creators.”

Councillor John Campion, leader of Wyre Forest District Council, said: “Wyre Forest District Council, as part of the North Worcestershire group of councils, is delighted to be a member of Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

“We recognise the importance of LEPs as they will be central to regional growth. Being a member will mean we will be at the heart of the decision-making process and will it give us an influential role in the economic success of the area.”

The news comes as the Worcestershire LEP revealed the line-up of its business board. The 18-member board was picked from 70 applications.

Francis Christie, chair of the Worcestershire LEP shadow board and county chair of the Institute of Directors (IoD), told Insider that the criteria for the successful applicants were three-fold.

“We wanted to make sure we had a representative sample of the business community,” he said. “The applications were all judged on three things – the geographic location of the business, its size and market sector.

“It was a challenge to pick the right applicants, and we have made the board bigger than originally planned. But I think we have a good team of people going forward.”

He said that the business board would have “a broad remit”.

“The board will be addressing opportunities for growth and addressing situations where there is a significant degree of unemployment”, he said. “We want to create an environment which encourages other businesses to expand and grow into the region.”

The business board will include Dean Attwell, managing director of Oakland International; Juliet Betterton, managing director of betterpr; Ray Brookes, group chief executive of The Community Housing Group and Jim Clark, managing director of AMS Group.

David Greer, chief executive of Skills for Security; Margaret Gray, director of MidWest Rural Enterprise Community Interest Company; Robbie Hazlehurst, director of Chrysalis Performance and Matthew Horton, managing director of Thomas Horton will also make up the panel.

Joining them will be Viv Hudson, managing director of HotelShop UK; Tony Hyde, managing director of Thomas Vale Construction; Tony King, group director of Sanctuary Housing Association and Mark Martin, director of One Creative Environments.

Completing the line-up is Richard Quallington, chief executive of Community First; Richard Soper, managing director of Bosch Thermotechnology; Stephen Taylor, chairman of Taylor Property Development; Paul Walker, managing director of Malvern Instruments; Ed Webb, executive chairman of Webbs Garden Centres and Alan White, chief executive of Malvern Hills Science Park.

Christie said that although he was confident of the “strong” team which had been appointed, he was aware of the challenges which would face the organisation.

“We’re taking over from a well established organisation which had a large budget. With the right support from the government, we will have a lot to contribute.

The government has been criticised for not having a growth strategy recently – LEPs could definitely develop that growth, but will need help to do so.”

He added that the shadow board was currently considering a range of applications for the position of chief executive of the LEP.