When I stood for re-election last year, bringing jobs to the Black Country and the wider West Midlands was the biggest priority in my manifesto.
Everyone knows just how hard the pandemic hit our region and generating new opportunities for local people remains key to our economic bounce back.
By the end of 2021, it was clear that we were starting to see real gathering momentum in the jobs market, with around 61,000 new jobs created since March across the three LEP areas of the Black Country, Birmingham and Warwickshire.
This momentum has been built through a mix of inward investment and the kind of business innovation and determination that has always made the West Midlands a hotbed of commerce.
The Chamber of Commerce has played an important part in the growing jobs revival by helping to keep the Black Country’s businesses updated on the opportunities available to them.
We still have the Commonwealth Games to come, which will be a huge fillip for the region, and major infrastructure and transport projects continue to bring investment in.
However, I thought I would use this column to fill Chamber members in on some of the many schemes and announcements that are also helping to drive the jobs revival.
The growing retrofit sector – which will update old homes to make them more energy efficient – could become a significant employer as we press ahead with achieving our climate targets.
A consortium led by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has been awarded £7.5m to make hundreds of social housing homes more energy-efficient and improve the lives of people across the region.
Led by the Energy Capital team at the WMCA, seven partners made a successful bid for a share of the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to retrofit social housing, with the aim of retrofitting 622 of the worst energy-performing properties across the region.
It’s not just about updating old homes – it’s about building homes for the future too. Our region’s pioneering brownfield regeneration programme has secured another £28 million from government to transform even more derelict industrial land into new homes, jobs and facilities for local people.
The new money has been announced as part of the government’s forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper and is aimed at breathing fresh life into brownfield land.
The funding comes on top of more than £500 million secured to date by the WMCA to build thousands of new homes in the region. The Black Country is the epicentre of this new science with Wolverhampton home to the new National Brownfield Institute, and huge reclamation developments happening in places like Walsall and Wednesbury.
The West Midlands has always been a hotbed of innovation, so entrepreneurs, new start-ups and fast-growing businesses are playing an important part in the jobs revival.
Entrepreneurs and innovators from across the West Midlands will have a unique opportunity to develop and grow their businesses by meeting with potential investors and other cutting-edge companies at a free event this spring.
Venturefest WM 2022 will put growth businesses together with investors who have specific expertise in innovation.
Venturefest offers the opportunity for entrepreneurs, innovators and investors to share ideas for co-operation and collaboration, particularly in the fields of science and emerging technologies.
The event is being led by the WMCA and Innovation Alliance WM, working with local enterprise partnerships, universities and Bruntwood, a leading property provider to the science and tech sector.
Venturefest will take place on Thursday March 24 at the Eastside Rooms, Woodcock Street, Birmingham B7 4BL, from 8:30am to 5pm. Places can be booked at https://venturefestwm-2022.eventbrite.co.uk
Finally, training must also play a major part in giving people the skills needed to take advantage of the new opportunities on offer in the jobs market.
Our region has been awarded £9 million funding for job training packages aimed at getting unemployed residents back into work quickly to support the region’s post Covid-19 economic recovery.
The funding will be delivered through the Sector Based Work Academy Program (SWAP) and is designed to quickly train up people with the skills the region’s businesses need in sectors such as care, construction and warehousing.
The SWAP programme is based on job vacancies highlighted by employers and those taking part not only receive training tailored to the role but are also provided with vital work experience and a guaranteed job interview.
And for the next generation, our innovative scheme to fund apprenticeship training for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has secured in excess of £32 million, helping more than 2,280 people learn new skills.
Originally set up in March 2019, The Apprenticeship Levy Transfer Fund allows some of the UK’s biggest businesses to cover 100% of the training cost of apprentices for SMEs by donating their unspent levy to the WMCA rather than see it returned to government.
To date, a total of £32.7m has now been pledged to the scheme with 725 SMEs benefiting from the fund.
These are just a taste of the many project and schemes that are driving the economic bounce back. With the support of Black Country’s businesses, we can continue to build momentum in the jobs market.