Ed Balls: I want a Midlands powerhouse

The Shadow Chancellor is full of praise for young people who want to get on in life and train up in the skills badly needed by employers.

It is a difficult position. Labour must not talk the nation down. But neither is it prepared to give any ground to the Tories while campaigning on what it calls a 'cost of living crisis'.

In a wide-ranging interview at South Staffordshire College's Progress Centre in Cannock Mr Balls:

• Admitted Labour was not tough enough on immigration

• Pledged to fund apprentices despite the need for multi-billion pound cuts

• Called for the creation of a Midlands powerhouse to rival the North

• Ruled out forcing the West Midlands to elect a mayor.

With unemployment down, the deficit reducing and an economy doing better than anyone else in Europe, it is not as bleak as Labour might want to suggest.

Meanwhile Cannock Chase, being treated to its second visit from Mr Balls in just over four months, is high on Labour's target list. As well it should be. This is where Labour lost by the biggest swing to the Tories of anywhere in the country in 2010.

If Ed Miliband is to have any hope of governing without being propped up by a smaller party, Labour has to win people back here.

Forget Essex Man and Worcester Woman. We've got the Cannock Mechanic.

Mr Balls sits down with the Express & Star after meeting students learning all sorts of trades including construction, and tries his hand at tiling. He moves on to a spot of painting, at which he only dabs, to the amusement of Loren Stuart, the student whose work he has just tried to assist.

After the work on the go-kart, he carefully shakes hands to avoid getting the oil on mine.

He sees the West Midlands as somewhere that should be more in control of its own destiny, with councils handed greater power to fund projects that will help their local economies to grow.

At the end of last year council leaders in the Black Country and Birmingham agreed to join forces in a 'combined authority' and work together on transport and skills.

The body will be able to take on any new powers that might be offered in a wave of devolution to English regions – at the same time as the Scottish Government gets yet more power in return for the Scots voting no to independence.

Yesterday the Prime Minister and Chancellor announced the creation of a 'northern powerhouse' in the north west, with improvements for roads, health and thousands of new homes.

Mr Balls says the West Midlands should get that too but risks being left behind.

He also thinks the Coalition's abolition of Labour's £300 million a year development quango Advantage West Midlands, the former regional development agency (RDA), has set the region back.

"After four years in which the Tories abolished the RDAs and cut back investment for business and skills, the abolition of AWM was a piece of vandalism. It's not enough for them to say they want a northern powerhouse.

"I want to see a Midlands powerhouse and powerhouses right across the country.

"The focus on devolution and powers for Manchester seems to be happening at the expense of other parts of the UK and that's not fair.

"I want to see considerably more devolution than the Tories are promising for Manchester, the West Midlands and everywhere that's up for it.

"The combined authority is a necessary condition – local authorities coming together – for that to work. You can't think sensibly about skills and transport as one local authority. Where I totally disagree with George Osborne is where he says he will only agree to devolve power and resources if you agree to have an elected mayor.

"My view is if the West Midlands wants to elect one person to be the mayor for Birmingham and the Black Country that's up to them.

"This area is a big target for us. The Tory MP who won here (Aidan Burley) is standing down rather than fighting the next election. But we know have a lot of work to get Labour MPs back."

He rattles off the party's policies – repealing the so-called bedroom tax, increasing the minimum wage, investing in the National Health Service.

"We can't do that if we don't win the key seats like this. So I'll be back again before the General Election."

"I met a series of small businesses who say the skills shortage is holding back their plans. But if you look at the numbers, here in the West Midlands the number of apprenticeships over the last 12 months has gone down. We need to increase apprenticeships. We have to make some difficult decisions on spending," Mr Balls said. "But what you don't do is cut off your nose to spite your face. Cutting apprenticeships for under 25 year olds is really silly."

He does acknowledge mistakes Labour made before 2010.

"There was a global financial crisis. Labour was not tough enough on regulating the banks. We will be tough on making sure they work for our country. People know we were not tough enough on controlling immigration. That's an area where David Cameron has totally failed."

Asked about the current crisis in hospital A&E, where many are failing to see patients within four hours, he said: "We have record numbers of people not being discharged because social care has been cut so much. And that costs us more, not less."

But there is no promise to reverse the controversial downgrade that has seen Stafford's A&E department closed at night and other services moved. "The thing that is terrible for the credibility of politicians is if four months before an election they make a promise and then afterwards they break it," Mr Balls says.

It is going to be a long campaign. And we never even got on to the threat to both Labour and the Tories of UKIP.

As he heads off to a waiting 4x4 he says: "I'll probably be back here next week."