Lord Chancellor Jack Straw certainly made an impression on a visit to the West Mids yesterday, but I'm not sure he made many friends.
Property bods at the Financing Recovery conference at Aston University were hoping that the former Home Secretary might tip them the wink on whether the planned exodus of the Ministry of Justice from London might eventually lead to Birmingham. They were disappointed. Not only did Mr Straw not give anything away on the potential relocation of up to 6,000 jobs, he went on to berate the region's "relatively weak" skill levels, commenting: "It is telling that during this recession people with no qualifications have seen a 5.8 percentage point rise in their unemployment rate, compared to 2.9 per cent for those with any level of qualification."
OK Jack, feel free to tell it how it is (or, in the case of the MoJ relocation, how it isn't). But do us a favour and also offer the region some constructive pointers, rather than the standard rhetoric about the how the Government will be there to support the economy, blah, blah, blah. You could do that from London and, yes, we know there's going to be a general election next year. What we'd really like to know is what the Government will do for the West Midlands - perhaps you could come back and tell us?
In the meantime, if any readers of my blog want to remind Mr Straw why Birmingham has a sound property case for the MoJ relocation they can email him direct: lord.chancellor@justice.gsi.gov.uk Do let me know if you get a response...
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