Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest’s Member of Parliament, yesterday secured an important adjournment debate in support of the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership’s bid for a business expansion zone in Kidderminster. Business expansion zones were announced earlier this year by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his budget speech and Mark Garnier has been working with Wyre Forest District Council and the Worcestershire LEP to secure a BEZ for Kidderminster ever since.
IN his speech in the Chamber of the House of Commons, attended by many West Midlands MPs across parties as well as representatives of the business community from Worcestershire in the visitors’ gallery, Mark highlighted the fact that Kidderminster offers nearly 45 hectares of developable land available for incoming businesses. Importantly for the local region, this will bring up to 4,000 new jobs to the area.
Mark was also keen to extol the virtues of not just Kidderminster and the wider Wyre Forest, but Worcestershire as whole, highlighting the fact that the LEP’s bid for an enterprise zone in Kidderminster has the unanimous support of the county wide business community.
Mark said: “I am delighted to have been able to secure time in the House of Commons chamber to be able to reinforce our local bid for an enterprise zone. When George Osborne announced the concept of BEZs in his speech in March, my first telephone call after was to the chief executive of Wyre Forest District Council and the Leader, highlighting this opportunity. This is a crucial part of the process of regenerating Wyre Forest and it is an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss: it is my number one priority until we have secured an enterprise zone for Wyre Forest.”