Category Local Enterprise Partnerships
City Regions and LEPs – the need for much closer Local Authority Working
I have just printed off Albert Bore’s Annual Policy statement (APS) for Birmingham City Council. This summarises achievements of the Council and lays out ambitions for the future year. I must say it is really very interesting and for anyone interested in the overall direction of the Council it is a must read. It could […]
Is the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP a Cohesive Partnership?
I had the pleasure of attending the AGM of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP this week at the Villa ground. Despite the poor news unleashed by the Chancellor concerning the relative small size of the Local Growth budget it was generally an upbeat event with a lot of positivity and good news about the […]
European Funding Allocations announced in England: London a clear winner @globalbirminghm
In a statement today the Government has announced the notional allocations of ERDF and ESF for England’s LEP’s. The figures can be seen here So for Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP the allocation is €255m which equates to roughly £220m. This with the announcement yesterday for the LEP’s of £2bn annually in the Single Local Growth […]
Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP MP’s Call for Heseltine’s Plan to be Implemented @gbslep
In a letter sent recently a cross party group of MP’s from constituencies in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP call on the Chancellor George Osborne to deliver on the Heseltine Plan. They point to the confident start of the LEP, and its already proven ability to deliver and call for in particular the plans […]
Local Infrastructure Funding for Birmingham: Positives and Negatives
The announcement recently by Eric Pickles of Local Infrastructure funding loans from the Housing and Communities Agency for three projects in Birmingham’s Enterprise Zone is good news. The three projects that have won resources from the fund are; Masshouse – Funding will partly be spent on creating an attractive public square. Arena Central – Funding will […]
Greater Birmingham’s Strategy for Growth: A step forward
An ambitious plan for the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership was launched today. I will review this in the next few days but on a quick look, it is an advance of where we were, but it is tentative on the how, tentative on what is needed to happen and how it will […]
Regeneration Focus to University of Birmingham’s new Institute of Advanced Studies
Following in the tradition of some of the University greats the University of Birmingham last week launched its Institute of Advanced Studies. The concept behind these is that they are cross disciplinary approaches; pulling on expertise from across a University to focus on specific issues. The IAS is going in the first 18 months to […]
BIS: European Funding Post 2014 share out between England and the Devolved Administrations
Behind the scenes there is a lot of work going on on the new EU funding programmes in the UK from 2014. Two recent announcements are just the tip of the iceberg. Firstly they have announced how they intend the resources allocated to the UK to be shared out between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and […]
Local Economic Growth: What will Work with ‘What Works’
The government (BIS/CLG) together with the ESRC has launched this call for teams to bid for a new research ‘What Works’ centre The idea is plainly to learn what mechanisms are better than others in driving forward economic growth at a local level. It details the characteristics the centre will have. It will be independent of […]
‘The Time Has Come for Action’
Lord Heseltine has just launched The Greater Birmingham Project: The Path to Local Growth. This is a quick review of the document. Lord Heseltine and the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP are really seizing the day. The launch today is intended to feed into George Osborne’s budget setting agenda for later in the week; not that […]
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