Midlands Gateway - Overall Indecon Report Conclusions

Overall Indecon Report Conclusions

The scale of the economic challenges facing the Midlands Gateway is very large. The analysis in the Strategic development Framework for the Midlands Gateway report (listed below), has highlighted the following challenges:

• The absence of a critical mass of population, employment and infrastructure in the Gateway;

• The extremely low levels of value-added and productivity in the existing manufacturing base in the region, which leaves the Gateway vulnerable to significant further job losses;

• The persistence of socio-economic barriers, including noticeably higher unemployment, lower educational attainment, and social deprivation/exclusion in certain areas in the Midlands counties;

• The failure of the region to capture a higher share of tourism activity and to develop higher value tourism product areas; and
• The absence of a strong, identifiable ‘brand’ for the Midlands Gateway, which gives the Gateway and surrounding region strong visibility as an attractive location for live and work.

• The reporters Simpson and Associates, strongly believe that unless the strategies recommended in this report are implemented, the potential for the area to develop as a significant Gateway is limited and this, like all the other elements of the (original National Spatial Strategy), now called the National Development Plan, would remain aspirational.
• If, however, the recommendations in this report are implemented, we believe there is a real opportunity for significant progress to be made.