Margot meets with Development Director for Westfield Ltd

I keep in touch with Westfield because not only do people from Stourbridge shop there but almost 2,500 Stourbridge residents work there. So more than five thousand Stourbridge families have an interest in the Merry Hill retail economy.

That's not all. I met last week with Steven Hassel, Development Director for Westfield Ltd to discuss issues of concern to the area. Namely skills and transport. Why is our productivity in the Black Country less per person than the average for the UK? And that gap is growing by the way.

According to Steven, and I agree with him, the main culprit is congestion and inadequate transport. Transport as a policy area does not fire the public imagination in quite the same way as do schools, crime and health. That is a pity. It lets a decade of government incompetence, lack of strategy and vision go under the radar. It didn't help that for many years John Prescott was minister in charge, but in his defence, the main culprit has been the Treasury aka Gordon Brown.

One result of the lack of finance and slow decision making, one of many, has been the Metro saga. Ten years and more under discussion and still no much needed transport link. The whole area west of Birmingham needs a much better, interlinked, transport network. The region is awash with Labour MPs defending marginal seats; you would think that together they might have been able to apply the right kind of pressure, but no.

Next on the agenda was skills. I am a great admirer of Stourbridge College so I wanted to know all about the retail academy, sponsored by Westfield and run by the College. As retail is responsible for so many jobs in our area now, it really pays for those employed or hoping to be employed in the sector have state of the art retail skills. That is what the Academy provides.

And many of those who have enrolled with the Academy are people who have been out of the labour market for some time. Some have lost skills, others confidence. The six week programme of training, which includes two weeks in a job placement, is just what is needed to enable people to get back in to the world of work.

Next on the Westfield agenda is the creation of a Food Court with three restaurants and 16 kiosks selling different types of food. To support this another skills based training programme will be established in the hospitality sector. Sadly the Further Education partner is not to be our College this time, Westfield intend to partner with Halesowen and Walsall Colleges to meet this need.

Photo: Margot James with Steven Hassel, Development Director for Westfield Ltd.