Bring regions into focus

As a West Midlands MP, I am often concerned that too much economic policy is focused on London and the South East and not enough consideration is given to the support needed by the rest of the country – so I was glad that we have started 2012 by focusing on regional growth. This will then be followed up by individual sessions to discuss some of the regions, including the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber. One of the biggest barriers to growth in the regions, I believe, is that of perceptions. We often forget that, although London has always had a special place in the British economy, the industrial revolution was mainly driven forward in the regions, in cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast. Our regions are not lost causes, nor is helping them just an attempt to swim against the tide of economic development. The rich history of our regions shows that if we get the right conditions and right support in place, that they can compete globally and they can succeed. There has been some welcome progress on support for the regions through the new Regional Growth Fund – which has already given allocations to around 176 bidders, leveraged £7.5 billion in private sector funding and supported around 300,000 jobs – and the development of new Local Enterprise Partnerships to better tailor the support that businesses receive at a local level. However, more always needs to be done and this is particularly important for manufacturers. The government needs to look at how we can better support infrastructure development in the regions, so that we can make them more competitive, and how we ensure that we are able to sell our regions internationally so that we can attract inward investment. The regions have the potential to be the engine that powers our economy's recovery. I hope that by giving a regional focus to our seminars we will be able to develop the ideas to achieve that.