Lack of a regional policy is hindering the West Midlands’ ability to take advantage of the economic recovery.

There is no united vision.

Honourable and well intentioned people are in charge at the various LEPs – Greater Birmingham & Solihull, the Black Country and Coventry & Warwickshire.

But LEPs don’t have the money. Can they deliver? Do they have the clout?

Birmingham is the Second City. It should be a growth trigger for its surroundings, but old politics inhibits everything.

There are profitable companies such as Jaguar Land Rover. Can the airport runway extension generate enough new passengers and is the infrastructure and terminal capacity able to cope – there are good schools, and there are good universities.

HS2 is a wonderful opportunity. It can spur growth and psychologically will boost Britain.

Hopefully it will generate a lot of new enterprises though we must be careful that we don’t import every bit of technology.

British companies need to be to the fore. For the moment there is too much prevarication over HS2 but I believe it will happen.

In all this, automotive is key. Not so long ago the car industry was effectively dead – now it is the envy of the world.

JLR, a British company and a Midlands company, is even getting awards from the Germans. This shows what can be achieved, but we must attract more first and second tier suppliers.

The car industry is an engine for growth, but what else?

I think IT can develop if we take advantage of outsourced contracts coming back from India. We have many small IT businesses in the region and they can surely capitalise.

The top skills base is here – it is at the lower end we need to improve. We must reconstruct vocational education and that is beginning to be addressed including through apprenticeships and university technology colleges.

That canny politician Sir Albert Bore has a vision for transport which is to be applauded.

But there remains a big job ahead if the West Midlands is to get its act together and this is not being helped by the cutbacks.

It means it is that much harder to make aspirations come true.

  • Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya is founder of Warwick Manufacturing Group