Government awards grant to boost town centres

The government is making £3 million available to help areas hardest hit by the recession find creative ways to reduce the negative impact empty shops are having on the high street.
Coventry, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Walsall councils are each being given a grant of £52, 632.
The councils will use the grants as they [...]

How is the Black Country performing?

How can we tell whether real progress is being made towards achievement of the Black Country’s aspirations?
The aspirations are set out in the Black Country Vision and the  Black Country Strategy for Growth and Competitiveness (PDF, 72kb).
The answer may lie in the newly developed Black Country Performance Management framework, which consists of 24 key indicators that measure achievement of the Black [...]

Latest gross disposable household income estimates indicate metropolitan West Midlands is UK’s poorest sub-region

The 2007 Regional Gross Disposable Household Income (GDHI) (Word, 411KB) estimates are released today by the Office for National Statistics.
Indexed GDHI per head (where UK=100) for the West Midlands in 2007 was 90, stable in comparison to the revised 2006 index value of 90.
GDHI per head in the West Midlands rose from £12,700 in 2006 to [...]

West Midlands local development annual monitoring reports

The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires local planning authorities to regularly monitor planning policies that affect the planning and development of their areas.

Each council is required to produce an Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) which is published in December to assess the effectiveness of policy in the Local Development Framework.
These show whether the progress [...]

2008 Black Country education barometer published

The Black Country Observatory has published the Black Country Education Barometer 2008 today.
The report indicates that Black Country schools are starting to close the gap with the national average GCSE performance.
There was a 6.6% increase in the percentage of Black Country pupils achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (compared to 4.2% nationally) and an 8% rise in [...]

West Midlands Regional Integrated Economic Assessment published

The West Midlands is the first English region to produce a Regional Integrated Economic Assessment. The aim of the project is to provide an assessment of the performance of the West Midlands’ economy and of the factors which contribute to it. It also assesses the relative position of the different parts of the region.
The Assessment [...]

Local Area Agreements: The next generation

In June 2008, 150 new Local Area Agreements (LAA) were signed off by central government. A Local Area Agreement is a three year agreement, based on local Sustainable Community Strategies, that sets out the priorities for a local area.
The 14 strategic authorities in the West Midlands each have a Local Area Agreement.

Life expectancy in the West Midlands

A recent press release from trade union GMB highlights the difference in life expectancy at birth across the West Midlands.
Women living in Solihull have the highest life expectancy in the region at 83.3 years with those living in Stoke-on-Trent having the lowest at 79.6.
For men, the difference is greater with those living in South Shropshire [...]