Built in the Black Country - sold around the world

Annual Review 2012/13

All Black Country LEP documentation, including this Annual Review are available to download at www.blackcountrylep.co.uk

Board MembersStewart Towe CBE - Chair MD, Hadley Group

Councillor Mike Bird - Deputy Chair Leader, Walsall MBC

Paul Brown - Access to Finance Director Government Services, Ernst & Young

Councillor Darren Cooper - Leader, Sandwell MBC

Andy Cox - International Trade MD, Cox & Plant

Simon Eastwood - Infrastructure and Planning MD, Carillion Developments, Carillion Plc

Councillor Roger Lawrence - Transport Leader, Wolverhampton City Council

Ninder Johal - Communications MD, Nachural Corporate Communications

Councillor David Sparks OBE - European Funding Leader, Dudley MBC

Chris Handy OBE - Social Enterprise Chief Executive, Accord Group

Professor Geoff Layer †- Skills Higher & Further Education Vice-Chancellor, Wolverhampton University

Jat Sharma -Skills Higher & Further Education Principal and Chief Executive, Walsall College

Vicki Wilkes †† - Education / business partnerships MD, Phoenix Calibration & Services Ltd

Tom Westley - Enterprise Zone Chairman, Westley Group

Paul Linton - Nominee – Skills for High Value Manufacturing Senior Manager Human Resources, HUF (UK) Ltd

Peter Suddock - Nominee – Visitor Economy Chief Executive, Dudley Zoological Gardens

† Professor Ian Oakes resigned September 2013 †† Resigned July 2013

The second year of the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership has seen major achievements in our aim to drive economic growth for the 1.1 million people and 33,000 businesses in the Black Country.

Our board represents the strong partnership between business and the four Black Country local authorities. There have been board changes due to retirement and business demands with our thanks to John McDonough, Jason Wouhra, Vicki Wilkes and Professor Ian Oakes for their contributions. We have recruited new private sector board members during the year and Councillor David Sparks joined as a Local Authority representative.

We are rising to the challenges of delivery, accountability and building relationships, securing over £50 million to invest in the competitiveness of the Black Country. The 2013 Comprehensive Spending Review announced the Single Local Growth Fund, less than Lord Heseltine’s report envisaged but major funding that reinforces LEP’s as integral to local growth. The Fund gives us the opportunity to align the needs of Black Country businesses, broker alliances and lever in additional European and capital investment project funding, resulting in faster, sustainable growth.

LEP Board members are working closely with Ministers and Government departments on a ‘Black Country City Deal’ for more effective local action on raising skills and providing sites and premises for business investment. The Black Country Local Authorities are working in partnership as members of the LEP to create the conditions for enterprise to succeed.

One of our objectives is to increase the Black Country Gross Value Added (GVA) from High Value Manufacturing (HVM) by £3.1bn underpinned by 75,000 jobs. This builds on the Black Country’s track record in designing, building and exporting components and products such as aircraft control systems, turbo technology and an extensive range of automotive parts. We launched the Black Country Skills Factory, as a new employer-led training collaboration, to address shortfalls in HVM skills.

We are working in partnership with neighbouring LEPs to develop integrated transport plans and investment across the urban area. We have also established a Transport Board which is gearing up to allocate £18.4m of devolved funds towards transport schemes and working on ‘quick wins’ to keep business moving.

2013 - 2014 brings further opportunities as the Government has announced measures to devolve resources to stimulate local economic growth and we will launch our Strategic Economic Plan. Increasingly, the future of the Black Country will be in our own hands, using our own energy and skills. This review provides a summary of the Black Country LEP’s achievements. We are making an impact and look forward to our City Deal proposition growing in relevance.

Built in the Black Country - sold around the world.

Stewart Towe, Chair Black Country LEP

Chair’s introduction

“ We are rising to the challenges of delivery, accountability and building relationships”

Highlights of LEP achievementsActions are structured around three areas of activity:

• Business competitiveness and the economy • People skills and employability• Place our distinctive environment, attractions and infrastructure

• We developed an online Finance Directory to assist Black Country Businesses to access funding and provide guidance on sources of business finance.

• The Black Country received £26.7m from Round three

of the Regional Growth Fund, to create an additional 2000 jobs.

• A successful £25 million bid for Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) regional growth funding in partnership with Coventry and Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham and Solihull and Liverpool City Region. A new £19m programme as part of the AMSCI initiative, to provide loans and grants to pay for capital equipment, working capital and R&D activity, will provide further opportunities to Black Country businesses.

• International Trade was boosted by the creation of

Invest Black Country, following direction from the LEP, to improve the Black Country’s competitiveness around foreign direct investment and work with UKTI. A dedicated team across all four Black Country authorities now sits under the umbrella of Invest Black Country to maximise inward investment opportunities.

• Invest Black Country are working collaboratively with UKTI and Birmingham and secured a 15% increase in jobs created in the Black Country though foreign direct investment in 2012-13. Invest Black Country have funded the development of the Black Country Bullet, an online virtual car, to showcase the strength and quality of the automotive supply chain.

Business improving competitiveness

www.investblackcountry.com home page

People raising skills• The LEP secured funding from the UK Commission for

Employment and Skills to set up The Black Country Skills Factory. This is a new employer-led education and training collaboration to address the shortfall in High Value Manufacturing (HVM) skills in the Black Country, which has the UK’s largest cluster of HVM companies. The Skills Factory offers an apprentice wage subsidy to encourage more SME’s to take on engineering apprentices. The project also aims to increase the pipeline of suitably skilled staff to respond to the growth of the sector through subsidised bite-size courses and master classes.

• A Black Country Apprenticeship Plan has been designed to give greater emphasis towards apprenticeships. The plan is a strategic document and supplements the local authority plans and the work of the provider networks.

• The Black Country LEP Board endorsed the rollout of a Skills Pledge which will identify both Black Country employer’s and provider’s commitment to training.

• Following requests from businesses, Chris Handy now leads on Social Enterprise for the Board and a Social Enterprise plan has been developed. A Social Enterprise Cabinet has been formed which meets monthly and has membership from social enterprise infrastructure organisations.

• The Black Country LEP was one of 21 LEPS chosen to submit a bid to Big Lottery for its Talent Match programme. The Black Country has bid for £10.3m to support 2,000, 16-24 year olds to enter the job market.

Lauren Speed of 3D Tooling Technologies, Wolverhampton, the first engineering apprentice to benefit from the Skills Factory

wage subsidy scheme

Black Country Training Academy

Place transforming our infrastructure and environment• The Black Country is unique amongst LEPs in having a

unified, endorsed Core Strategy. It is the largest (by area and population) shared, statutory development plan in England. The strategy provides immediate planning policy and infrastructure ‘certainty’ for private sector investment and for prioritising infrastructure investment that is directly linked to the Black Country’s economic growth ambitions.

• £14.3m of the Government’s £500m Growing Places Fund was secured by the LEP to provide infrastructure to promote the delivery of housing, jobs and private sector investment.

• The Black Country Visitor Economy had a successful year with investment in infrastructure and facilities at attractions including; The Black County Living Museum, The Civic Hall venues in Wolverhampton, Dudley Canal Trust, Dudley Zoological Gardens and Wolverhampton Racecourse, leading to a 21% increase in visitor numbers in 2012 compared to 2011.

• The Black Country Strategic Transport Board was created in response to the Government devolving responsibility for major local transport schemes from 2015-16 to Local Transport Bodies. The indicative amount of funding to be devolved in 2015-19 is £27.6m. An assurance framework to help secure this funding has been submitted and the Transport Board has established priority Black Country transport schemes.

• The Black Country’s Strategic Transport Board is part of a shadow Integrated Transport Authority with the Greater Birmingham LEP.

Transport Priorities for Growth

Olympic torch relay at the Black Country Living Museum

Wolverhampton Interchange

J1

M5J10

M6J2

M5Link Road

M6 M54

Rapid Transit Network

Spine - Phase 1

• The Black Country Enterprise Zone is becoming the place where business thrives and the most successful in the UK at creating jobs. Our Enterprise Zone is a multi-site zone over 120 hectares, with sites in Darlaston and Wolverhampton North. We have targeted 4,000 net new jobs by 2015 in Advanced Manufacturing, Transport Technologies and Environmental Technologies. The Wolverhampton sites are currently being developed whilst those in Darlaston offer longer term development opportunities.

• Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is investing £500m in their UK

Engine Manufacturing Centre at the i54 business park which will create approximately 1,400 jobs in a state of the art 1,000,000 sq ft facility. The current ratio of supply chain jobs in proportion to those at the main plant stands at four people to every role and Black Country suppliers will also benefit from opportunities arising from further investments made by JLR in Solihull. In addition to JLR, Moog and Eurofins have already constructed new facilities at i54 safeguarding 550 jobs.

• The LEP secured £100,000 from the Enterprise Zone Skills Fund to address skills priorities and develop an Enterprise Zone Skills Action Plan. The Action Plan has been completed and is being implemented through the Skills Factory, work with JLR and in the medium term the Black Country City Deal.

• The Black Country was selected as one of only six

Enterprise Zones to receive 100 per cent Enhanced Capital Allowances. These savings will be available at specific sites in Darlaston, with up to £125m available for the purchase of plant and machinery. Business rate discounts of up to £275,000 over 5 years are available at the other sites.

Place Enterprise Zone

JLR UK Engine Manufacturing Centre

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LEP

Perception and CommunicationsThe LEP has worked over the last twelve months to align activity at a Black Country level across the four local authorities and strengthen the perception of the Black Country in particular around Inward Investment, International Trade and the Visitor Economy.

To ensure the Black Country’s business voice is heard, the LEP has developed close working relationships with Ministers and Government departments. MP briefings in Parliament have been held and a programme of MP communication events will be implemented in 2014.

The LEP has hosted visits by Government Ministers, departmental officials, UKTI sector specialists and potential investors.

We have developed dedicated websites for the LEP, Skills Factory and Invest Black Country which feature regular news updates and intelligence reports. We are using e newsletters and social media to communicate with Black Country businesses and inform them about collaborative opportunities.

The LEP produced an analysis of patent applications in 2012 which revealed:

• There were 5,600 patent applications in the West Midlands 2000-2011, 800 of these applications were made by Black Country firms, with around 350 granted.

• Some of the recent Black Country patents include: a mop bucket bacteria killing solution (which has been used by global companies such as McDonalds and Taco Bell),and a new process for producing bimetal die.

In the past year the LEP Chair, Board members and secretariat have held meetings and engaged with the following:

The next year will continue to be a busy one for the LEP, our key outputs include:

• Concluding the Black Country City Deal, working with our Local Authority partners to access new funding to invest in the local economy.

• Launching a new Strategic Economic Plan to provide a framework to address growth in our transformational business sectors, improve the quality of the environment, housing and premises for residents and businesses, improve the experience and accessibility of transport, refresh our approach to the development of our four strategic centres and continue to improve educational performance and raise skills in the Black Country.

• Proposals for European Funding Strategic Economic Plan to access Structural and Investment Funds for the period 2014-2020.

• Ensuring SMEs are made aware and can easily access relevant Black Country investment funding.

• The development of a joint Local Transport Board with the Greater Birmingham LEP.

• Achieving Skills Factory targets for advanced manufacturing businesses developing the specialist skills of their workforce.

The Black Country LEP will be under intense scrutiny to deliver added value in 2014. We are the sum of our parts and can only make a difference because of the contribution of a wide range of partners including our four Local Authorities and business organisations such as The Black Country Chamber of Commerce and The Federation of Small Businesses.

A large number of businesses and partners are actively engaged in LEP project groups including Access to Finance, Growing Places, Low Carbon, Innovation, Integrated Transport and Sir Andrew Witty’s review of the role universities can play in supporting growth.

Looking Forward

Urban 80, a development by Accord Group of contemporary new homes in West Bromwich

Core funding £125,000

Skills Factory £50,000(Development work on pilot to secure £1m grant)

Capacity Fund £25,000

In addition the Local Authorities funded Black Country Consortium Ltd to deliver economic intelligence, project management, communications and policy advice to the LEP Board.

The LEP grant income was spent on the development of a growth strategy, Inward Investment promotion, research on advanced manufacturing, LEP Board recruitment, and sponsorship of The Black Country Asian Business Association.

LEP Structure and Funding

Key funding agencies

Invest Black Country part funded by

LEP SecretariatBlack Country Consortium Ltd.

Includes the EIU (Economic Intelligence Unit) providing a

cross-thematic multi-dimensional spatial economic analysis.

LEP BoardNon Executive directors

Black Country Consortium Ltd.

Business

• Access to Finance including Regional Growth Fund

• Enterprise Zone

• Invest Black Country

• Regulation for Growth Pilot

• City Deal Growth Factory

People

• Employment & Skills Board

• Skills Factory

• Social Enterprise Cabinet

• City Deal Prosperity and Jobs

Place

• Strategic Transport Board

• Visitor Economy

• Growing Places Fund

• City Deal Country Investment Fund

Funding Amount awarded Acccountable body/ Delivery Partner

Growing places Fund (Black Country) £14m (Loan and Grant) Sandwell MBC

Green Bridge RGF (Regional).1 £20m (Grant) Birmingham City Council

Green Shoots RFG (Black Country) £1.4m (Grant) University of Wolverhampton and the Express and Star

Growing priority sectors RFG (Black Country) £15m (Grant) Sandwell MBC

AMSCI (Regional).2 £25m (Loan and Grant) Finance Birmingham

Talent Match (Black Country) £9m (Grant) Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council

Enterprise Zone (Black Country) Business rate retention over 25 years Wolverhampton City Council

Tooling Loan fund RGF (National).3 £7m (Loan) Finance Birmingham Subject to due diligence

Funding for Black Country businesses

Over the past year we have worked with a range of Black Country businesses to assist them to access funding to accelerate growth. Examples include:

CabAuto - a world class interior automotive component manufacturer, secured £2m RGF towards the £7m required to purchase its current factory when the lease expired. Creating 66 jobs and safeguarding 201.

Thomas Dudley – a family owned plastic moulding and foundry business, manufacturing high quality bathroom products and iron castings. Received £700,000 RGF grant to install new moulding line equipment at a cost of £4.7m to transform Thomas Dudley’s manufacturing process with lower costs and higher productivity. Creating 26 new jobs by 2014, 86 by 2018 and safeguarding 30 jobs.

Pargat Housewares - manufacturers of aluminium cookware and bakeware products for the retail market. Awarded £500,000 RGF towards £2m expansion of manufacturing facilities, including research and development facilities to create 30 jobs by 2013, safeguarding 60 jobs.

1. Green Bridge, administered by Birmingham City Council, this scheme operates across the West Midlands Region covering the LEP areas of the Black Country, Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP, Coventry and Warwickshire, The Marches and Worcestershire - In rounds 1 and 2 the Black Country has been awarded £1.5m, creating and safeguarding 324 jobs. Overall the programme will create and safeguard 1,800 jobs.

2. Regional AMSCI - £25m available on a rolling basis for 5 years to manufacturing businesses and consortiums in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull, Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire and Liverpool City Region LEPs.

3. National Loan Tooling Fund - An application submitted by the Black Country LEP, and Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP, our delivery partner is Finance Birmingham. This fund will be launched early 2014.

Funding for the Black Country secured by the LEP and partners

© Black Country Consortium Ltd 2013

Infographic used by permission of Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership

The Deckhouse, Waterfront West,

Dudley Road, Brierley Hill DY5 1LW

Tel 08458 15 15 15

Fax 01384 471177

The LEP needs input from local businesses, to receive news updates and information visit; www.blackcountrylep.co.uk

@blackcountrylep