We held our second Round Table at the Chamberlain Room in the Council House on 13th October, which had a great turnout from a range of city stakeholders. Our focus this year was November’s national ‘budget for growth’ which set out planned increases in public spending of an average of £69.5bn, or 2.2% of GD, per year from 2025/26, from which a third is earmarked for capital spending on transport, housing and research and development. (https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk).

Our chair for the evening, Pete Richmond, CEO of Bournville Village Trust and Chair of the Birmingham Anchor Network Steering Group, set out the key question for the Round Table: How do we ensure that the benefits of economic growth extend to all in the city and addresses inequality and disadvantage?

To kick start Fiona Hughes, our chair, set out Loconomy’s core mission “of building strong local economies…creating access to good jobs and careers” alongside our four strategic pillars – Connect and Convene (employers and local people), Collaborate (building delivery-focussed partnerships with public, private and community institutions), Advocate (for policy change that creates more sustainable economic opportunities) and Grow (shaping local economies bottom up). She concluded with a summary of the progress made by Loconomy over our first year. I then provided a summary of five case studies showing our methods in action, with NHS I Can, Inclusive Growth capacity building, local arts and culture, coaching in schools to tackle NEET, and resident engagement in regeneration.

Our first keynote by the Leader of Birmingham City Council, John Cotton, heard him double down on how “growth on its own is not good enough” and how the current positive indicators of growth in the city, such as business start-ups, need to translate into activity that lifts people out of poverty and tackles disadvantage and inequality right across Birmingham. John narrated the ‘tale of two cities’, where on the one hand we are seeing buoyant growth in the city centre (cranes in the sky) and on the other hand a life expectancy gap of ten years between areas of prosperity and areas of disadvantage – Birmingham is the youngest city in the UK but 42% of our young people live below the poverty line.

On the ‘asset’ side of the equation we see huge potential in burgeoning media growth, life sciences development, East Side and the wider inclusive growth approach in East Birmingham, HS2, the Octagon development and major housing regeneration in Druids Heath. It is critical to capitalise on these opportunities and the wider macro commitment to growth, much of which is to be channelled through the WMCA single settlement in terms of “how we give people and localities the tools to deliver change.”

Moving forward, one of the immediate priorities is tackling the skills gap and addressing the issue of 25% of vacancies that are hard to fill. This is a major focus for the elected Mayor and we in Birmingham need bring forward programmes and services that can address this. The forthcoming ‘Get Britain Working White Paper will underscore this priority with a range of flagship policy commitments in this field, and we need to be ready to respond to these. John also acknowledged the difficult financial challenge which the City Council is facing, whilst emphasising that this would not diminish his administrations’ commitment to addressing economic inequalities in the city through a range of measures including “squeezing every drop of social value out of city development”. There will be focus on driving skills and jobs, growing SMEs and social enterprises, and utilising the Council’s leverage over its supply chain through Find it in Birmingham. In concluding, he reemphasised his opening mantra of growth with a purpose, which is to be underscored by a social change agenda. He set out a vision for a citywide approach that is driven by the collaboration of businesses, voluntary and public sector.

Our second keynote was delivered by Jonny Gordon-Farleigh with a presentation on the Government’s manifesto commitment to double up the cooperative and mutual economy. He clarified the scale of the ambition of doubling up the overall number of cooperative/mutual businesses, the numbers of employees working in the sector and the proportion the sector generates in terms of the UK’s GDP. As a starter for ten the sector outcomes on key metrics sees added output of 8-12% in terms of productivity, 50% on local employment, £2,900 in wages, a doubling of profit distribution and 5 times less redundancy. He outlined three ways in which doubling up can be achieved - owners sale to employees or local communities, employee or local communities purchase of a closing business and where a business sells the right to use its business model, name and trademarks to other businesses. Jonny set out how this could shape up at a local level through case studies on renewable energy and retrofitting, creating social infrastructure, housing, culture and arts.

Our key notes were followed by quickfire updates from Conrad Parke from CLES, and Karolina Medwecka from the East Birmingham Inclusive Growth Team at the City Council. Conrad outlined the current priorities being pursued by the six organisations that make up the Birmingham Anchor Network, and priorities they have set themselves for 2024/25 and beyond. Despite a track record of innovation on iconic projects such as the I Can entry level jobs, Conrad was forthright on how much more could have been achieved with the scale of the assets and institutional power in play through the network. He outlined key concerns and disappointments on issues such as performance of the apprentice levy in the city, contrasted to the acute issue with NEET in Birmingham. He concluded with the need to build in new players, whether colleges, housing associations, businesses, or community organisations, drawing on the principles of community wealth building and inclusive growth.

Karolina addressed the urgent need to drive public sector reform, turning on its head the current funding system of “disjointed, fragmented interventions, to a system that enables transformations through long term investments”. With time considerations she focused on her conceptualisation of an Impact Coalition Model which posits a funding mechanism that can change WHAT gets funded, HOW, and WHO we work with.

The model is made up of five inter-related pillars:

At its heart is the concept of a bridge made up of three elements:

1. WHO: school partnerships, FE sector, HE sector, local economy partnerships, local business support providers, green infrastructure local providers.

2. WHY: the BRIDGE function builds capacity for change and connects macro-opportunities with communities.

3. HOW: support organisations need to work in partnership with BCC to translate the high-level objectives into actions for neighbourhoods and build on trust in local communities.

We arrived at a consensus on the need to scale up our efforts to tackle entrenched disadvantage across Birmingham. To do this we will:

· Use proven methods and best practice in the fields of community wealth building and inclusive growth.

· Create clear pathways for social investment; and developing a ‘bridge’ connecting community organisations, businesses, and institutions to deliver on skills, employment and learning outcomes for Birmingham’s citizens.

· Develop and implement across Birmingham the five pillars and bridge elements underpinning the Impact Coalition Model.

· An interest in adopting Loconomy’s four strategic pillars – Grow, Advocate, Connect & Convene & Collaborate.

With thanks to our speakers Councillor John Cotton, Jonathan Gordon-Farleigh, Conrad Parke and Karolina Medwecka, facilitator Pete Richmond and participants of the round table.

Making growth work for all

Loconomy Annual Round Table