Business Voice WM and the City Region have made an early bid for funds from the recently announced £1 billion Regional Growth Fund.

Bill Cooper, BVWM representative on the Birmingham and Black Country City Region board and head of local government for accountants and business advisers KPMG, has written to Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, asking for a meeting to discuss arrangements.

The Fund was announced in the emergency Budget and Mr Cooper is looking for guidance as to how the West Midlands economy may benefit.

Mr Cooper stated: "We have made our approach to the Government so that we can achieve a step-change in delivering greater prosperity for the Midlands.

"We must do this as the West Midlands has been the most seriously affected area of the UK as a direct consequence of the economic downturn.

"The need for the West Midlands economy to revive fully and provide a greater contribution to the country's economy is an objective that we share with the Government. However it is clear that there is a risk that this could be undermined by spending cuts in local public services.

"We understand that the Regional Growth Fund is intended to assist City Regions to avoid this, providing additional funds to support activities that promote and accelerate economic recovery and long term sustainable growth."

Saying he had been struck by the alignment between the City Region's priorities and the purpose behind the growth fund, Mr Cooper went on: "We are keen to learn quickly about how the fund will operate - its scale, the criteria and procedures that will apply, and how the City Region can best demonstrate its focus and commitment to boosting skills, creating sustainable employment and driving regeneration."

He adds: "I would be happy to arrange for you to meet with me and colleagues to discuss this in greater detail."

The enormity of the West Midlands' problems were recently illustrated by a Centre for Cities report which found that in Birmingham more than 61,000 private sector jobs disappeared between 1998 and 2008. The West Midlands is the only region in England to record a net loss during the same period, with 65,600 jobs going.

The report emphasised what regional development agency Advantage West Midlands has been saying for a long time - there is a £10 billion or more productivity gap between the region and the average for England … and it is getting worse.