Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to help businesses to create more highly skilled jobs in (a) Solihull and (b) the West Midlands.

The Industrial Strategy is our long-term plan to boost productivity by backing businesses to create high-quality, well paid jobs throughout the United Kingdom, with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure. The Government is supporting businesses in Solihull and the West Midlands through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which brings together world-class UK research with business investment to develop the technologies that will transform existing industries and create entirely new ones. We have to date allocated £298,603,876 of ISCF grant funding to projects in the West Midlands and £14,409 for Solihull.

Government has been working alongside the West Midlands Combined Authority, Local Enterprise Partnerships and local businesses to develop the West Midlands Local Industrial Strategy. This sets out an ambitious long term vision for the region to increase its productivity, build on its sectors at the heart of the region like automotive and life sciences, and create new opportunities for people and businesses in emerging sectors and industries.

The government have also helped businesses through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme. Since its launch in 2012, the programme has delivered 58 loans, totalling £489,951 for businesses in Solihull.

We have also established a network of Catapult Centres to commercialise new and emerging technologies. In the West Midlands, this includes the High Value Manufacturing Catapult which has two centres in Coventry, and the Energy Systems Catapult in Birmingham. These catapults will help businesses in these areas, and across the UK, to do cutting-edge R&D and train apprentices and doctoral students in high-demand technical skills.

Further examples of action across Greater Birmingham and Solihull:

• The Government is investing £433 million through the local economy through the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deals to support local economic growth and job creation.
• Projects that have benefitted from investment thus far include the Changan UK Research and Development Facility, and the Universities@IBC project at Innovation Birmingham, a digital and tech business support and incubation campus, which will create over 700 highly skilled jobs in the LEP area.
• Government is working with West Midlands partners to maximise the economic opportunity around the HS2 Interchange Station. The UKC Hub proposals are expected to deliver 35,000 to 77,000 new jobs in highly skilled sectors which will complement the existing economic assets in the area.
• The number of people in private sector employment has increased by 115,000 in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP area since 2010.

Further examples of action across the West Midlands:

• The Faraday Battery Challenge has invested £80 million in a new state-of-the-art automotive battery development facility in the West Midlands. A key part of the Automotive Sector Deal, the centre will host cutting-edge production and assembly processes and support the future scale-up of battery technologies.
• In July 2018, the government agreed a skills deal with the West Midlands Combined Authority which will boost digital and technical skills, job opportunities, and productivity across the region. This is co-funded by government alongside employer funding and is designed to support more young people and adults into work as well as upskilling and retraining local people of all ages.

• The Midlands Engine Investment Fund provides over £250 million to support small businesses in the Midlands to start and grow. It has now invested £25 million into over 100 SMEs.