Local Growth White Paper

Jack Dromey Excerpts

Thursday 28th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The hon. Gentleman is right. Norfolk is not on the first list. We are hoping it will be successful. The advice that I would offer is for the different councils to work together collaboratively, to involve the local business community more actively than it has been, and to be ambitious in their aims.

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

Advantage West Midlands was the most successful regional development agency, generating £8.14 in the private sector for every £1 of public money invested. Does the Secretary of State share the clear concern expressed by the business community in the west midlands that the combination of, on the one hand, LEPs with no resource, one third of the funding previously available to them, and facing a land grab by the Treasury, and on the other hand, no strategic structure to promote and protect the vital automotive industry in the west midlands, will hit hard the midlands region, which faces 100,000 job losses as a result of last week’s spending review?

[Vince Cable]

I do not share the hon. Gentleman’s concern, because several of the strongest bids were from the west midlands, as he knows—Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire, among others. The strategic oversight and the help that we need to give to the automobile industry—he is right to continue to emphasise that and to pursue me about it—will be pursued through the Automotive Council, which is one of our most successful sectoral bodies.