Birmingham Council’s innovative approach to restoring the city’s economic fortunes has won praise from one of the UK’s leading academic institutions.

A Warwick Business School team, led by principal research fellow Ines Newman, has analysed the authority’s strategies for tacking unemployment, creating training opportunities and raising skill levels.

WBS has a global reputation for teaching, particularly for its MBA courses, and is one of only three business schools in Britain with a five-star rating for excellence in international research.

Newman has specialised for more than 20 years in local economic development, was previously head of policy at the Local Government Information Unit, and is a national authority on such issues as social inclusion and community cohesion.

The report was prepared by WBS’s Local Government Centre, which is running a consortium of 20 local authorities and developing learning on best practice across key areas of social and economic policy.

“Birmingham has achieved the potential for major change by developing a vision which recognises the strengths of the city, and responds to the challenges presented by demographic changes over the next 20 years,” said Newman.

“What impressed me particularly was the clear vision which underpinned the strategy, especially the Big City Plan, and the way that the council is trying to link the city centre back to its neighbourhoods.

”Since the late 1980s, Birmingham has brought forward many impressive schemes, such as the ICC, the NIA and Brindleyplace, but they’ve been criticised - by academics and others - for not having a joined-up approach and not bringing employment to local unemployed residents. Now though they are trying to think through the various linkages.”  

The WBS team was equally impressed by the way the authority had used economic analysts to help understand its challenges, allowing it to subsequently evolve an evidence-based approach.

“It is absolutely vital when addressing complex social and economic issues, that the underlying causes are fully understood. We were impressed by the council’s genuine attempt to tackle worklessness,” said Newman.

“The previous long-term approach had not been an effective use of resources, because it wasn’t sufficiently focused, but the new multi-agency approach is both effective and co-ordinated.”

Newman and her colleagues studied how a partnership between the council, JobCentre Plus, and the Learning & Skills Council, had created jobs and training opportunities at a new Tesco superstore in Aston.

“The new protocol is very important, and appears to have delivered an integrated and successful approach in the Aston Pride area, which is an important first step,” she said. ”Aston, which is the model for the new approach, certainly delivered impressive results. Between August 2007 to May 2008, unemployment there fell by 2.7% and youth unemployment was down 8.8%, both well ahead of what happened elsewhere in the city. “The challenge now will be to reach a much wider range of employers, and particularly employers who are already in Birmingham, not simply ones bringing new investment to the city.”

Waheed Nazir, an assistant director in the council’s planning and regeneration team, and who leads its worklessness strategy, was delighted with the assessment from Newman and her colleagues.

“It is vital that our efforts, and our new approach, are subjected to external scrutiny. It would be pleasing to be told that we are on the right track by any outside observer, but it is more so when the comments come from an institution with the reputation of WBS,” he said.

“Ines is right to say that the big challenge now is to roll out the Aston Pride model to other neighbourhoods. We‘ve refined our approach since we worked so effectively with Tesco, and I’m confident that we have the right approach.”