Representatives from local authorities across the West Midlands have joined forces in a unique collobaration aimed at making the region’s construction industry more competitive.
The seven metropolitan borough councils signed the agreement formalising a commitment from each to collaborate on issues of construction, design, procurement and delivery.
The deal is a result of more than a year’s work by members from Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Coventry loking at ways to drive change in the construction industry while looking at ways to increase efficiency and establish and share best practice.
Coun Paul Tilsley, deputy leader of Birmingham City Council said: “This is a major step forward in improving efficiency and services in construction delivery across Birmingham and the other six Metropolitan Authorities. Collaboration on this scale will have major benefits in our buying power, for the local construction sector and for jobs.”
The West Midlands Collaborative Working Group have the support of a number of external agencies including the Office of Government Commerce, West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence (WMCCE) and the West Midlands Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership to map out existing procurement and delivery. These relationships have aided the group to openly evaluate and identify how they can collectively benefit from future procurement working methods and training across the region.
“This is an excellent opportunity for each council to work with other local authorities to share experience, skills and ideas making sure that we are improving the service we provide to the region,” said Michael Thompson, executive director of the West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence.
The issues covered by the charter will also included developing and promoting sustainable solutions to reduce the impact of climate change, developing and promoting procurement strategies which benefit from economies of scale, joint senior officer working relationships which drive and support the regional economy and supporting local people into jobs and training through construction procurement and delivery.
