Regional development banks and municipal banks have been at the heart of my calls over the last 16 years for radical reform of banking.
They were also at the heart of my calls for strategies for regional growth to rebalance the economy, both geographically and in terms of what we make, service, create and do as an economy.
It has taken a good 16 years and many demands in this column and in blogs here at the Birmingham Post , but finally, there has been significant movement. From both ends of the political spectrum, there appears to be hard and fast agreement and plans.
I have faced some mild criticism since this column started that it has been difficult to go beyond a couple of paragraphs without mentioning regional banks, municipal banks, and regional pension funds.
Keeping regional wealth circulating within and around the regions and not disappearing down a banking and financial services black hole to the South East, has usually followed shortly thereafter; with ‘confident acts of economic self-determination’ and ‘Brummie Bonds’ peppered liberally about.
And, finally, banks and municipalities taking equity shares in local and regional SMEs would ice the cake. Thus spoke I, to anyone who would listen or read columns, blogs and speeches.
So it is with some satisfaction that all the rants and arguments and impassioned pleas, perhaps even from these pages, may not have fallen on deaf ears after all.
First of all, there was a strong statement by the current Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Banking Minister, Greg Clark, last month in the House of Commons in relation to regional cities and banks: “I should like very much to see banks in our great regional cities, as used to be the case: banks that can take deposits from local people and, knowing what local investment opportunities they have in the area, can establish a connection.
“So far it has been very difficult for new banks to obtain banking licences within a reasonable period, and to satisfy the regulatory requirements. We are doing all that we can to lower the barriers to entry.”
Mr Clark went on to confirm that the current banking Reform Bill (now at committee stage) will “make it easier to create the local, regional banks that we need to provide the competition, access to finance and community trust” in banks.
He said he was in discussions with politicians in the North-East “looking at ways in which we can make it possible for there to be a north-eastern or Tyneside bank that can specialise in the north-eastern economy.
It’s high time, then, such discussions were promoted here and now in Birmingham for the same for the West Midlands.
I have publicly asked Greg Clark directly about the importance of municipal banks and Brummie Bonds and he has always been very positive, so this was an interesting and welcome development. It wasn’t all talk.
Secondly, the Labour Party is quite clearly throwing its future weight behind the policy of regional development banks. Again, I have pushed the regional development bank policy within the Labour Party at all levels, and in journals and speeches.
Most especially I have raised the issue with David Miliband and Ed Balls directly, on more than one occasion.
Ed Miliband commissioned Chuka Umunna to look at these areas and has outlined a very direct commitment for an incoming Labour government to set up a network of regional development banks; and also (a frequent call in these pages) a national investment bank designed to invest in small and medium sized businesses (SMEs).
I have frequently suggested here in this column that the German local and regional banking and business investment systems need to be a guide to rebalancing our UK economies to the regions and as part of a new industrial strategy. The Labour Party now says that it intends to “introduce local lending institutions, based on the principles underpinning the local German savings banks, the Sparkassen”.
In my earliest blogs (‘Lemons ripen before peaches’ was one) here at the Post I called for policies which involve long-term (ie over 10 years), patient equity finance in regional SMEs. The Labour Party now embraces this as a key principle. As also does the Government in its response to Heseltine this week.
So what now, here, in Birmingham? Well, those detractors who have suggested that a Birmingham Municipal Bank or an independent Birmingham Bank were non-starters and too difficult to achieve need to think again.
As with the Tyneside Bank discussions, Birmingham needs to have the same discussions and get the Birmingham and West Midlands banks back into the system as, now, active propositions. The barriers to entry (re-entry, when it comes to a Birmingham Bank, of course) need to be removed post-haste.
Two years down the line, should there be a Labour government then clearly any existing or developing structures under the current set-up need to be financially ‘shovel-ready’ to be incorporated into the new structures. We should not wait, under either a current coalition or any future Labour government.
I would push for a Birmingham Municipal Bank, as has existed before, perhaps within an overall new wider West Midlands Bank structure and through which investment in our local economies can again begin to thrive and develop.
Local savers’ accounts, certainly, but Brummie Bonds or Black Country Bonds, both commercial and retail can be issued to bring investment in from a range of sources to these banks.
Most particularly, they can come from the pension funds of the region, the UK and beyond. These can be linked to specific infrastructure and equity investment programmes, most especially in SMEs. Their role in developing long-term, patient investment in new technologies will be especially key. But also quick, start-up finance at a micro-level is as important.
The LEP has its place, but we’ve also learned of its limitations and it is not the only game in town when it comes to bringing real investment into the region and city.
The imminent revolution in manufacturing at a micro-level using 3D printing – creating parts and finished products in a range of materials, such as plastic and metal at a micro-level, could be kick-started through investments at that micro-level through our new local banks.
We could, through quality local bank investment become, again, the city of a thousand micro-trades or the world’s first 3D Printing city.
It needs, though, a massive change in banking. And we have a chance to do that ourselves in a ‘confident act of economic self-determination’ in this city. Investment can begin at home, close to home, using local wealth and sources of finance.
I hope over the last few years I’ve managed through this column to keep this flame alight at least.
Let’s build a bank – a new bank for Birmingham.
* John Clancy is a Labour Birmingham city councillor. He writes a blog for the Birmingham Post here.
