Borealis already owns stakes in High Speed 1, Scotia Gas and Associated British Ports, while the Kuwait Investment Office has investments of over £15bn in 100 UK listed companies, along with a stake in Gatwick airport.

Today Severn Trent rejected the initial approach, stating that "a conditional proposal was tabled by the consortium at only a modest premium to the share price before the announcement of May 14. The board of Severn Trent has reviewed the proposal with its advisers and concluded that it completely fails to recognise the existing and potential value of Severn Trent."

But those LEPs are now suffering from a lack of confidence, confusion and short-termism, the all-party House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee warned last week in a hard hitting report which is well worth a read (you can read it here).

In particular, the funding of LEPs was sharply criticised in the Committee's report, which argues that this undermines efforts to revive the economy.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (see here) show government borrowing falling from £120.9 billion in 2011-12 to £86.2 billion in 2012-13.

But the latter 2012-13 figure was lowered by £28 billion by the Royal Mail pension transfer, and another £6.4 billion through the cash transferred to the Treasury from the Bank of England's Asset Purchase Facility.

Take out these two artificial factors and borrowing for 2012-13 came in at £120.6 billion. OK, that is just lower than the 2011-12 figure, but only just, at just £300 million less, or 0.3% less.

But what was most noticeable for me was how the Chancellor's budget measures to stimulate the housing market were already seen to be unravelling, reminiscent of the caravan-pasty tax 'omnishambles' of last year.

The extra money for infrastructure investment would come out of additional current spending cuts. The extra spending was welcome but fell far short of what was needed, and indeed what the Business, Innovation and Skills Secretary Vince Cable had called for before the budget.

There was no extra borrowing at historically low interest rates (as Vince Cable called for) to pay for extra capital spending to kick-start recovery. Cable, remember, had written that the question was whether "should borrow more, at current very low interest rates, in order to finance more capital spending: building of schools and colleges; small road and rail projects; more prudential borrowing by councils for house building. This last is crucial to reviving an area which led economic recovery in the 1930s but is now severely depressed".

Admittedly it's a gross over-simplification to compare setting economic policy to making a pizza. But bear with me as it's a useful analogy. In essence, three levels can be identified in both. A pizza is often completed by a scattering of cheese (political rhetoric), which goes on top of the chosen topping (a mix of policies), which in turn is layered onto the base (the underpinning economic framework).

On visiting a restaurant, we often take time to choose our preferred topping. However, as my Italian in-laws often tell me, in practice it's not the topping that makes for a really top-notch pizza, but the quality of the cooking of its base.

The demerged Cadbury was subsequently 'in play' as a takeover target and was gobbled up a few years later by Kraft. Of course, what was good for Nelson and his chums in extracting value didn't necessarily equate with either long term business success or wider economic benefits.

He's at it again, it seems. Peltz has reportedly taken big stakes in PepsiCo and Mondelez (the owner of Cadbury since the Kraft split ), supposedly with the goal of putting them together or - more likely I feel - splitting off part of PepsiCo to merge with Mondelez. (Of course it could just be a passive investment and everyone could be getting far too excited - I hope so).

Output has already started in Tennessee for the American market and as there, a battery plant has been built next door to the Sunderland assembly plant to produce the batteries going into the car. Leaf production for other markets continues at Oppama in Japan but the firm is also actively looking at production in China under a local brand.

This all links to what Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn terms "localisation", i.e. shifting production nearer to the end market (on my earlier blogs on re-localisation, see here). This is especially important given exchange rate shifts, as Ghosn highlighted this week.

Jaguar Land Rover's Chief Executive Rath Speth recently said that it was wrong to subsidise "poor electric vehicles" and nationwide charging stations, adding that "at this time I am not a very big friend of electric vehicles."

He went on to add that "batteries are too expensive ...the customer must be very rich, and can only use (electric cars) in mega-cities. Should we do it only for the rich?" He argued that it would be better to wait until the technology improves and there is a greater benefit to the environment, and to let the market decide: "the customer is clever enough to decide what he wants or doesn't want... even with lots of subsidy the demand is not very high."

Is he correct? Well, yes and no. Actually it's right that the government tries to encourage the take-up of low carbon vehicles so as to help the market take off, as new markets often do need some state support to get moving. But attempts so far have indeed failed to have any significant real impact.

Lloyds for example has taken £3bn from FLS since last summer but has reduced the value of its loan book by some £5.6bn. Meanwhile, RBS/Nat West has reduced its loan book by £2.3bn since the lending scheme began. And Santander has cut its loans by £6.3bn despite having taken £1bn from FLS.

The big five high street banks account for 90% of lending in the UK, and with three of them cutting funding on such a scale, hopes for economic growth led by the private sector will be dented.

Remember that the chancellor actually inherited an economy that was growing - tentatively - in 2010. Since the 2010 General Election, the UK economy has grown by just 0.5% (and even that was probably down to the Olympics).

I have made my criticism of George Osborne's austerity drive clear in my blogs here at the Birmingham Post. His 'Plan A' was a huge error which has left the economy at best flatlining. He should have had, and should now be pursuing a 'Plan B'. The cuts coming down from central government are having a profound effect on the likes of Birmingham City Council.

But as I argued in my last blog, the city council itself needs to avoid cutting too far too fast on the basis of speculation as to future financial position and a hyped-up 'Jaws of Doom' narrative.

Realistically the council should only consider the position of the next 2 years. After then, there can indeed be planning, but it must be on the basis of different scenarios and at least a Plan B (and probably C and D).

Yet as noted in my last blog, Sir Albert Bore is pushing ahead with his own 'Plan A' and is right now preparing to fundamentally restructure the council and its economic profile. There does not appear to be any other Plans in town (or city).

In fact, a series of 'Service Reviews' of Birmingham City Council's services and spending is now taking place and it is these reviews which are expected to take the strain of the alleged 'Jaws of Doom' via decomissioning cuts - prompting speculation of a pay-as-you-go 'Easy Council' along the lines of Tory-run Barnet council.

George Osborne's misguided 'Plan A' austerity drive is doing real damage to the at-best flatlining UK economy. I have made my position clear time and again in this column that Osborne should have had, and should now be implementing, Plan B. So does the IMF and many other commentators.

Osborne's austerity drive hits home particularly when seen played out at the level of Birmingham City Council - a key player in the local economy with a turnover of £3.5bn. Birmingham City Council undoubtedly has a revenue crisis on its hands.

The latest future planned cuts to Birmingham City Council's formula funding and a whole range of other grants means that the city council's spending and investment in services, and in the local economy, is contracting at an alarming scale. The council has a controllable expenditure of £1.3bn a year out of its £3.5bn turnover.

This year will see a further like-for-like cash terms cut in funding from the government of £31.5m. This is on top of the £140m already cut over the last 2 years, leading to a £171.5 million drop in revenue over three years. This is serious.

What's encouraging is that both brands did well, whereas previously the big sales increases were largely chalked up by Land Rover and Range Rover models.

In January, Land Rover sold 29,118 vehicles (up 31%), with sales up in all major markets. Meanwhile Jaguar sold 5,759 vehicles (up by 40%), with increased sales of the XJ (up 70%) and the XF (up 37%), reflecting strong sales of the recently introduced XF Sportbrake, as well as all-wheel drive models and more fuel efficient engines.

But despite this sales success, last month Tata warned that JLR profits for the current year would be less than expected, even if the firm is still on track for a record year.

Manganese Bronze went into administration in October with 99 out of its 176 black cab workers losing their jobs. Geely has now acquired the "business and the principal assets" of Manganese after the deal was agreed with administrators Pricewaterhouse Coopers.