Last week, the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report which found that private sector jobs created under the £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund cost between £4,000 and £200,000 per job. For the whole UK, they estimate that the Fund will create around 41,000 net new jobs, with around 8,600 of those being located in the West Midlands.

The current unemployment rate for the West Midlands is around 9 per cent which is - when converted to something meaningful - is the lives of about 240,000 people.

Or, in other words, whilst welcome, these 8,600 new jobs might shave next to nothing off the total unemployment for the region.

The coalition government's £1.4 billion Regional growth Fund has been severely criticised in a damning report (read here) by the National Audit Office (NAO). The report states that the RGF has failed to achieve value for money, spending as much as £200,000 generating a single job. And of particular concern the NAO notes that the RGF could have created thousands more jobs if the government had applied tighter controls.

Deputy PM Nick Clegg had previously claimed the fund could generate up to half a million jobs. I'd still like to see the calculations behind his claim as that figure is wildly out-of-line with the NAO's estimates. While the RGF may create 328,000 jobs in total, these are of various durations and the NAO estimates that only 41,000 extra full-time equivalent jobs could be created over the next seven years as a result of the RGF, at an average cost of £33,000 per net additional job (which is "broadly similar" to past programmes with comparable objectives).

The world is constantly changing. This is perhaps an obvious statement. The question is therefore not whether change exists but the pace at which it occurs and, crucially, whether we are able to embrace it.

So, take two very British 'brands', Weetabix and snooker. Anyone who grew up in in Britain in the 1970s and, especially, the 1980s will probably have been exposed to both.

The announcement last week that a majority stake in the makers of Weetabix has been sold to Bright Food, China's second largest food company will probably come as no great shock. It is part of a growing trend for cash-rich Chinese companies to buy western brands.

The news that South Korean company Samsung is believed to have surpassed both Nokia and Apple become the largest mobile phone manufacturer demonstrates the importance of being able to offer technology that is, as well as being innovative, is perceived to be value for money.

For example, Samsung's galaxy handset is acknowledged to offer better technology than Apple's iPhone but at a lower price.

As Francis Jeronimo from analyst IDC comments, why would you buy the iPhone, which has a five megapixel camera, if you can purchase a Samsung that has an eight megapixel camera and a better (brighter) display for less money?

Notably, Samsung's rise has been achieved from roots that gave no indication of the current pre-eminence it enjoys in electronics. Indeed, Samsung is a company that has learnt to adapt, diversify and innovate in a way that demonstrates the importance of being both agile and creative in terms of both strategy and technological development.

The history of Samsung is instructive for any organisation that wishes to innovate its way out of the current economic crisis.

Recently I presented to the All Party Manufacturing Group's think tank, Policy Connect, chaired by Chris White MP, Leamington & Warwick, highlighting some of Birmingham's credentials as the 'Original Design City', to be showcased at the forthcoming Birmingham Made Me Design EXPO, 15th - 22nd June, the Mailbox, Birmingham, which is now able to boast over 50 business exhibitors alongside the student exhibits from Birmingham City University and Engineering Design at Aston University.

Thanks to former colleague, William McGrath, Chief Executive of AGA Rangemaster, I was able to bring with me to this meeting at Portcullis House a copy of Patent No. 380, granted to Abraham Darby in 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne.

This historic and extraordinary document, housed at AGA Rangemaster, still making AGAs in Abraham Darby's original foundry at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, effectively launched the industrial revolution. The 1707 Patent states,(in fulsome legal language, amply demonstrating that profession's ability to use many complex words in varying combinations was already, even as early as the 18th century, well- practiced),

The Prime Minister has issued a national challenge:

• to double exports to £1 trillion by 2020;
• to remove the trade deficit by 2020;
• to increase the number of firms exporting by 100,000 by 2020;
• to raise the number of SMEs exporting from the current level of one in
five, to the European average of one in four, by 2020.

So can we meet that challenge?

After months of planning with colleagues at the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, business partners and engineering design colleagues at Aston University we are finally in the countdown to Birmingham's first Design EXPO in over 100 years which runs from 15th-22nd June and is being hosted by the Mailbox, Birmingham.

We're thrilled to have some of our best-known Midlands brands exhibiting - Jaguar Land Rover, AGA Rangemaster, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Brintons Carpets, Glenn Howells Architects, Acme Whistles, Deakin & Francis and Emma Bridgewater, together with some big national and international names including JCDecaux, the outdoor advertising business.

Obsessionistas, a site dedicated to those passionate about collecting will provide a digital display covering around 20 design archives highlighting our authenticity as the home of design.

Birmingham's reported business start-up rate amongst 18-24 year olds is, at around 3%, less than half the level for the same age group in London, which stands at about 7%.

Assuming these figures are correct why is our 18-24 year old business start-up rate so much lower?

....Not from any lack of talent or interest amongst our young people, would be my observation.

It is emerging talent like this as well as our established brands that IDEA Birmingham is aiming to showcase at the forthcoming Birmingham Design EXPO 15th-22nd June, at the Mailbox Birmingham.

Next week, the government will set out its latest thoughts in its March Budget on the economy and the measures it is taking to encourage stronger growth. Just ahead of this, EEF will be hosting its first Manufacturing Conference, where we will be looking at what should be done to create the environment for manufacturers to invest in the UK rather than a growing range of locations around the world. I strongly recommend that the Chancellor picks up the messages coming from industry at our conference and uses his Budget to send a clear message to manufacturers that the UK is the right for them to make their next major investment.

The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) was unveiled back in June 2010 with a wave of publicity. At the time, Deputy PM Nick Clegg argued that the RGF was going to 'create the conditions for growth and enterprise in the regions by stimulating investment and creating sustainable private sector jobs'.

On the same day it was announced that RDAs would be scrapped and replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). The RGF was, in fact, an attempt by the government to show that it was responding to criticisms of the policy to scrap RDAs and that it had a plan for growth in England's regions outside London (the latter kept its RDA of course).