£100m windfall claimed
About £100m-worth of investment and more than 4,000 new jobs have been secured by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, it has claimed.
The LEP said a lot of its success has come from clinching an enterprise zone for the region to be based at the i54 site in north Wolverhampton. It aims to create 4,000 jobs while offering cheap business rates, superfast broadband and quicker planning rules.
The LEP said it played a vital role in securing £10m from the Regional Growth Fund to support eight businesses expand which has led to a further £44m in investment.
It has also claimed credit for a joint LEP bid with teams in Birmingham, Coventry & Warwickshire and Liverpool to secure £25m for small to medium-sized businesses involved in the advanced engineering supply chain. It has also won £9.6m from the government's Growing Places scheme.
The announcment comes a year after the Black Country LEP came into being following the demise of the previous regional development agencies.
Stewart Towe, chairman of the Black Country LEP, said: "In many ways the first year of the LEP was always likely to be the most difficult as we established our first board and set out our priorities. Looking back we are pleased with how things have developed and absolutely delighted to have secured an enterprise zone for the Black Country and attracted millions of pounds of investment.
"In addition to investment and jobs, one of the biggest leaps I believe we have made is in helping put the Black Country on the map in the minds of key players in London.
"We have welcomed a number of ministers to the area and have seen the Black Country selected for government schemes such as the medium-sized business pathfinder. We have also successfully lobbied government over plans it has since dropped in relation to scrapping land remediation tax relief."
