Famous as the outspoken head of John Lewis, Andy Street has another role – chairman of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP. He spoke exclusively to David Thame
Andy Street does not mince his words. The Birmingham-born managing director of the John Lewis department store chain and recently reappointed chairman of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) spoke exclusively to Estates Gazette after a month conspicuous for jaw-dropping honesty.
Outbursts included describing the prize he collected at the Paris World Retail Congress as plastic and “frankly revolting”. He added that the French economy was “hopeless and downbeat” and that investors should get out quick.
His comments may have ruffled feathers in Paris, but nobody in Birmingham seemed much bothered. Indeed, today the former King Edward’s School pupil is more popular than ever.
And you don’t have to dig far to find his fan base. John Griffiths, consultant at GBR Phoenix Beard, says: “Birmingham has been crying out for the right people in the right positions for years and, in the absence of an elected city mayor, we need someone like Street for whom 10 Downing Street’s door opens. That is hugely important at a time of change. Street is fighting hard and getting heard.”
Managing the GBSLEP is, arguably, a trickier task than managing John Lewis. Expectations are high, political pressures are acute and, of course, public life is notoriously unforgiving.
The hottest issue is the prospect of merging the GBSLEP with the neighbouring Black Country LEP. The plan has been championed by Sir Albert Bore, Labour leader of Birmingham city council. A council spokesman said discussions were “ongoing” and declined to go further. Street gives the impression that if they are ongoing, then they are going on very slowly.
He says: “I am very keen on working closely with the Black Country LEP, and we can point to lots of examples of how we are working with it better than ever on shared funding, shared support for the automotive supply chain, and so on.
“But I don’t yet believe the best answer is a merger, because the two bodies serve distinct geographies.”
The “yet”, Street explains, is a nod towards the outcome of the general election in May 2015. If Labour wins, all bets are off.
Meanwhile, Sir Albert Bore is also pushing plans to create a combined authority for part of the old West Midlands county area, following similar moves in Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire. It would, in effect, provide a powerful statutory delivery arm for the LEP.
The idea is popular with some observers, but many property sources are not convinced. “We had a West Midlands county council from 1974 to 1986, and the experience was not a happy one,” recalled one long-in-the-tooth observer. Street says he won’t be drawn. “This is a matter for the politicians,” he insists.
The third big issue comes with the delivery – any day now – of a study into housing need commissioned from Peter Brett Associates.
A LEP spokesman declined to comment on the research brief, but the report is likely to confirm what is already known – that Birmingham is facing a large shortfall in housing supply,
perhaps under-shooting by as many as 100,000 homes.
Says Street: “The LEP is not the planning authority, and we will not cut across local authorities here, but what the LEP has done is bring local authorities together to see what the collective housing need is in the medium term. I don‘t think any other LEP has tried to do this. Yes, this is sensitive, but if we try to dodge every sensitive issue, we’ll never achieve anything.”
Observers such as GVA senior planning director Craig Alsbury hope that the LEP can make a difference.
Alsbury says: “The LEP has no statutory powers here, but I think the local authorities will regard the outcome as important and maybe use it as the basis for their emerging local development framework. It could have quite an impact.”
Andy Street is providing exactly the kind of dynamic leadership Birmingham’s property industry wants to see – and with another three years of his mandate as chairman left to run, he is expecting to provide plenty more.
“There’s been a step-change in the West Midlands economy,” he says. “That isn’t all the LEP’s responsibility; it is teamwork. But it is very clear change over the last three years. Now we have to take advantage of that.”
Growth deal
The Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP is preparing a second round of Growth Deal projects, but it will be much smaller than the £357m first round. GBSLEP is unlikely to be allocated more than £30m.
Worcestershire worries
A dispute about housing numbers in south Worcestershire – and a feeling that the north of the county might not be the top of GBSLEP’s regeneration priority lists – make Worcestershire
an anxious place.
A combined plan for Worcester city, Malvern and Wychavon districts proposing 28,400 new houses has fallen foul of an inspector who told them to add sites to provide a further 6,200 homes. The councils are now consulting on a list of sites.
Meanwhile, Kidderminster is watching the distant motions of GBSLEP with interest.
The town, and the Wyre Forest district of which it is part, form one of the most far-flung members of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP.
A new link road, promoted by GBSLEP, will help open up the former British Sugar site in Kidderminster which accounts for most of the district’s 100-acre allocation of employment land.
• To read more from Andy Street see the Focus blog www.estatesgazette.com/blogs/focus
