University research funding in the West Midlands has been among the lowest of any English region, according to a new policy document calling for greater action to back to the region’s economy.
The West Midlands Labour Party’s new Economic Plan claims that the low rate of university research grants, poor education performance and stuttering economy are to improve then joint working at a regional level is needed.
A group of Labour council leaders, European election candidates and affiliated union bosses say that neither local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships working in isolation, nor national government departments can deliver the level of economic growth and prosperity needed.
They say that MEPs should be at the forefront of the battle to secure a greater share of the European and other grant funding available – including a pot of £80 billion available over the next six years from the EU’s Horizon programme.
And they have set out an economic plan to boost skills and compete for manufacturing businesses providing higher skilled jobs with better pay.
In 2011-12 the West Midlands universities received just £70 million research funding, while London and the South East got £530 million and the North West took £120 million.
In this way and many others they are calling on the intake of Euro-MPs due to be elected next week to take to the lead and fill a power vacuum caused by the scrapping of the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.
Leader of Wolverhampton City Council Roger Lawrence argues that Jaguar Land Rover’s i54 development was delivered on the back of strong backing from AWM and a lack of involvement from Government departments.
He said: “People think that i54 is on a green site, in fact it was highly polluted. Without AWM putting money in for the clean up we would never have got i54.”
He said that a deal was done between Wolverhampton and Staffordshire over transport links in just three weeks.
“We can only imagine how long it would have taken if we had to wait for Department for Transport to make a decision,” he added.
Labour Euro election candidate Sion Simon, the former Erdington MP, said: “We need much more close working with local government colleagues across the region.
“MEPs are the only directly elected officials with a regional mandate and just as you do not expect Westminster MPs to devote their time only to Parliamentary matters, we should not expect MEPs to only go on about the European Union.
“We should expect them to be a permanent presence in the region.”
He said that recent governments of all political colours have spoken of devolution – particularly on economic and infrastructure planning and development, but have stopped short when called on to truly deliver. He says the MEPs must keep the pressure on Government.
The economic plan is a concerted effort to get the region’s politicians and agencies to work together to put their case to the European Union, government and the various research and business development funding agencies.
