Engaging with business

The economic perspective and uniqueness of the three LEP modelMike Carr, Programme Delivery Director, Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership

For this morning

Creating the West Midlands Combined Authority and negotiating the Devolution DealNick Page and Mark Rogers, Chief Executives of Solihull and Birmingham Councils

Followed by an opportunity for an open and honest discussion

Economic context

Strong foundations and enduring partnerships are in place

Investment in Infrastructure

Key successes – based on public/private partnership

Investment in Connectivity

Positive Economic Dials £630m Growth Deals

The three key challenges

• 4 million people• £80bn GVA• 20 local authorities• 90% self-containment

Economy Plus:

More than the sum of our parts

3 LEPs – key benefits

• Facilitates the Midlands Engine• Accelerate agglomeration benefits

– Close £16bn productivity gap

• Drive public services reform– Close £3.4bn public spending gap

Economy Plus

Alliance for growth

• A strong partnership between business leaders and the public sector

• Business leadership and innovation sits alongside political accountability

• The best of the public and private sectors in an alliance for growth

Mutually inclusive yet distinct

Creating the WMCA and negotiating the Devolution Deal

WMCA

Devolution Deal

The WMCAFirst and foremost it is the administrative form by which local authorities can act together to deliver their economic and

transport functions – and co-ordinate the functions that deliver them

The plan is to give it the wider remit of overseeing and co-ordinating the reform of certain aspects of the

public sector across the region

It will not take powers away from local councillors and the communities they

serve. The constituent and non-constituent councils will remain and

operate as they do now. They remain sovereign

1. Commitment to collaborative working on the creation of the CA

2. The prize is strong economic growth

3. Smart investment focused on the biggest outcomes

4. Growth will be accompanied by innovation and public service reform

5. Commitment to collaborative working with the private sector

6. All communities will benefit from growth, but not necessarily at the same time or in the same way.

The WMCA’s Working Principles

1. Development of a single Strategic Economic Plan across the 3 LEPS

2. Access to finance and a Collective Investment Vehicle

3. Getting the transport offer right for the long term

4. Creation of economic policy and intelligence capacity

5. A joint programme of skills

The WMCA’s early priorities

The Devolution Deal

Earned & staged

The deal/agreement between the government and WMCA specifying:

• The offers of power, funding and freedom

• In return for the reforms and measures the West Midlands will need to deliver

1. The case for devolution centres on the closure of the productivity and public funding gaps:

– A gap of £16bn between our contribution to national output and the contribution we would make if we performed at the national average level

– A public funding gap of £3.4bn between the taxes we pay in and the amount spent on public services

2. It will allow us both to tackle our economic and social challenges and grasp the enormous economic and public sector reform opportunities in the region. These are the two sides of the same coin

The Devolution Deal – the case for devolution

3. It will allow us to transform the governance of the West Midlands which will be essential for realising the potential of devolution

4. We are currently assembling a package of propositions for radical devolution for consideration as part of the 2015 Spending Review. As well as closing the gaps, these are designed to deliver clear outcomes:

– Building the Midlands Engine (West and East Midlands) and accelerating agglomeration benefits through an “Economy Plus” model

– Securing greater local control of funding, to enable better alignment of programmes and responsiveness to needs, greater local leverage and improved efficiency of investments

4. Deadline – 4 September!

The Devolution Deal – the case for devolution

1. Driving growth through connectivity, including the HS2 Growth Strategy, UK Central, UK Central Plus and expanded Metro network. Potential outcomes:– 104,000 jobs created and safeguarded– 2,000 apprenticeships– 700 businesses supported– £14bn additional economic output– 2m of the region’s population connected to HS2 by

public transport

The Devolution Deal – some of the emerging propositions and themes

2. Transforming the education, employment and skills system. Our offer to government is:

– a clear strategy focused on the needs and perspective of an individual, not on a series of largely disjointed activities

– a clear model of triple devolution recognising that different functions are best carried out at different geographical levels

– to simultaneously shape the employment and skills market from both the supply and demand side 

– to combine budgets to create a simplified and connected pathway from post 16 education or unemployment into sustainable work with training. 

– to develop personal budgets for those with more complex barriers to work– to directly connect publicly funded business support to local people– to develop incentives for businesses to engage in supporting our

employment and skills strategy through a payment by results model

The Devolution Deal – some of the emerging propositions and themes

3. Ensuring land supply for employment and revitalising the housing market. We will:– establish a time limited Land Commission– designate additional Enterprise Zones and extend

others– establish a Housing Investment Fund to develop new

housing – establish an integrated Land and Infrastructure Plan

The Devolution Deal – some of the emerging propositions and themes

4. Closing the public funding gap and transforming public services. We will:– Build our approach around three principles:

• Empowerment - services designed from the perspective of the citizen by empowered professionals rather than from an organisational perspective

• Outcome focus – designing solutions that optimise citizen outcome• Lower cost/higher productivity – optimising the use of the public pound

rather than an individual organisational budget

– Focus initially on a few inter-connected big ticket items:• Education, employment and skills (as per the earlier slide)• Mental health (in tandem with the creation of a time limited Commission)• Offending, including reducing early offending and re-offending• Addressing the needs of troubled individuals – a theme running through all

of the above

This is about reducing demand and improving productivity

The Devolution Deal – some of the emerging propositions and themes

Thank you

Questions and discussion