£200m plan to rescue the Black Country

A bid has been made to the Government for £56m to kickstart the transformation, which will also see busy transport routes remodelled including junction 10 of the M6 and major skills centres built for a new generation of engineers.

The region needs to get its hands on a slice of Lord Heseltine's £2 billion Single Local Growth Fund, but will have to compete with other areas such as Birmingham – including towns in Staffordshire and Kidderminster – which is seeking £86.3 million to kick off its own £440m five-year masterplan.

The Black Country's bid has been put together by the Local Enterprise Partnership , the joint body made up of business leaders and heads of the four councils in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell , in an effort to make the area a UK centre of hi-tech manufacturing.

If the bid is successful, it would allow:

• A £20m revamp of the Civic Halls and Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton

• Building a bigger junction 10 over the M6 to end years of bottlenecks

• New training centres in Halesowen, Dudley and Stourbridge

• Transforming brownfield sites into land for homes and employment

Bosses behind the bid said the money would go towards making the Black Country a better place to live. Stewart Towe, chairman of the Black Country LEP, said the new Strategic Economic Plan submitted to the Government this week, would spark 'a renaissance of our successful long-term past'.

A double page spread in today's Express & Star reveals further details of the plans:

He said: "We believe our Growth Deal gives us the flexibility to address the barriers limiting business growth, including under-investment in skills, accelerating businesses innovation, creating additional high quality employment sites, improving the housing mix and tackling traffic congestion."

The Government will reveal how much money it will provide to the Black Country in July.