Black Country Enterprise Zone demonstrated how it is flourishing as a location for growth and investment when Eric Pickles came to visit the i54 site last week.

Moog – a worldwide designer of high performance systems for the aerospace industry and Eurofins – a food testing laboratory have both established themselves there. Both companies are able to benefit from the low business rates and streamlined planning permissions in place, a feature of all Enterprise Zones inEngland.

And as theWest Midlandscontinues to grow as an automotive cluster, Mr Pickles visited the Aston Regional Investment Site, the site of a proposed new advanced manufacturing hub. He met the management team at Sertec, a key supplier to the automotive industry, who are moving to the Aston site to allow the company to meet growing demand for parts from its main customers, Jaguar Land Rover, Honda and Nissan.  This local growth is safeguarding or creating up to 3,000 jobs within the automotive supply chain industry.

For more information on the Black Country Enterprise Zone see http://www.the-blackcountry.com/default.asp?PageID=379&n=Enterprise+Zone.