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The gloves are off among the West Midlands LEPs bidding for enterprise zone status. Coventry and Warwickshire's organisation has revealed it will submit plans for a zone near Coventry Airport, which will provide "greater linkage" to Jaguar Land Rover's Whitley site. The board behind Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire's LEP has also come out fighting for one of the ten remaining zones, detailing its plans to create 14,000 jobs in the region.

Coventry and Warwickshire's LEP has agreed on the site linking Coventry Airport and the Tollbar A45 junction as its proposal to become one of the 21 enterprise zones which will feature across the UK. The site will be known as the 'Coventry and Warwickshire Gateway Enterprise Zone'.

The West Midlands received two of the initial 11 zones which were announced in Chancellor George Osborne's budget earlier this year. They will be located in the Black Country and within the Greater Birmingham's LEP borders.

Three sites across the area were considered by the LEP board. Denys Shortt, chair of Coventry and Warwickshire's LEP, said it was the airport's expansion programme and plans to create up to 10,000 jobs which won the nomination to go forward to the government for its area.

Shortt said: "We believe this is a real opportunity for Coventry and Warwickshire and the government’s announcement of enterprise zones has come at a perfect time.

"The site is very well positioned, there is clear potential and we are excited by the plans that have been drawn up.

"Not only will they create economic growth, the scheme will give far greater linkage with the planned development of JLR's Whitley site and also help solve what is a major traffic issue.

"We are working closely with Warwick District Council and other parties before submitting our bid towards the end of the month."

Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire's LEP board revealed plans to bid for an enterprise zone in the Etruria Valley in April.

The LEP board has now revealed that a successful bid would create 14,000 new jobs in the region and savings of £250m of business rates which would be put back into providing local services for businesses and the community.

It is being marketed as a "three pronged" bid, centring on the Etruria Valley, with specialised spurs at Keele University Science Park and the Hadleigh Business Park at Blythe Bridge.

In total, it aims to create up to 150 hectares of development land which will be ready businesses to move into.

Board members said the site will have the capacity to create up to 14,000 jobs by 2015.

Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP's chairman Maitland Hyslop said: "The government is looking to select just ten zones across the UK to kick start a wave of new investment opportunities and jobs.

"We have got through to the starting grid with 25 other areas – but our bid has got to be good. We have a ‘formula 1’ which we believe will be a real winner."

Enterprise zone submissions from The Marches; Worcestershire and Greater Birmingham LEPs have also been submitted.

Eleven successful applications from across the UK will be given the opportunity to create an enterprise zone in addition to the ten sites revealed in the government's Budget earlier this year.

Nominations for zones, which seek to boost economic growth and employment and reduce planning restrictions - must be submitted by the end of June.