Suzanne Webb MP: Give the region more powers to make levelling up a reality
In the last round of the Government's Levelling Up Fund, the West Midlands was successful in just two out of 18 bids. Writing for the Express & Star, Stourbridge MP Suzanne Webb says it is time for ministers to devolve more funding decisions to local leaders.
We need to move further and faster on levelling up if the West Midlands is to reach its full potential. I believe a truly trailblazing devolution deal is the only way forward.
To make levelling up a reality, we cannot just rely on competitive bidding processes. The principle behind things like the Levelling Up Fund is very good, but it doesn’t always work. There are too many bids chasing not enough money.
In Stourbridge and in other parts of the region, we put in months of our time in developing a bid and came away disappointed. And we are still left with a desperate need to put significant public and private investment into Lye and the wider Black Country.
To fix this, we need the Government to increase the ability of our Mayor Andy Street and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to shape the local economy and to drive forward our levelling up priorities.
We need more decisions made locally and the funding to back this up. Local decision makers, like Andy, understand local issues and the complexity of places like Lye. They understand the need for a long-term strategic plan that not only serves Lye, but the wider Black Country.
It doesn’t need a business case sitting in a pile of hundreds of others in Whitehall for six months to fix the problem. We can see it for ourselves. We know the area – we just need the funding and powers to get on with it.
The WMCA has made a great success of its powers since the first devolution deal was implemented. This can be seen in everything from skills outcomes and inward investment to new transport capital projects. Devolution was part of the reason the West Midlands performed so well before Covid.
So, we should build on this and use the devolution deal under negotiation with Government to unlock new powers for the region. A truly trailblazing deal would help attract additional inward investment, support more brownfield remediation, and bring new jobs and businesses to the Black Country. It would help stimulate and reinvigorate the local economy post-Covid. It would create simplified devolved funding streams to guarantee a more flexible flow of public funds – rather than the stop start of competitive bids overseen by nameless civil servants in London.
It would mean we can go further and faster without having to wait for another round of the Levelling Up Fund. I want Lye to prosper now. To do this I need local decision-makers empowered so we can get funds pumped directly into the heart of Lye.
Only that approach will help repurpose the scrub land behind the high street, stimulate affordable home building, create a strategic transport plan for the Stourbridge Dasher to finally leave the platform and, most importantly, create an environment to attract private investment.
So, let’s get on with it and give Andy and the region the economic firepower they need right here, right now and particularly so for Lye. What better symbol of levelling up in action could there be than that?
