Mayor Richard Parker today issued a clarion call to global investors with the message ‘now is the time to invest in the West Midlands’.
Launching the West Midlands Major Investments Prospectus the Mayor presented more than £19bn of opportunities to drive new growth, jobs and homes across the region.
And he invited investors to share in the region’s future success with exciting opportunities across infrastructure, regeneration, and world-leading sectors.
The Prospectus showcases some of the region’s biggest projects including the £4bn Sports Quarter with its new Birmingham City FC stadium, the Sandwell – Dudley Metro Corridor and the region’s three key Investment Zone sites in Coventry & Warwick, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
The Prospectus builds on the Mayor’s Growth Plan, a blueprint for how the region will grow its economy by £17 billion over the next decade, creating 100,000 new jobs and 120,000 new homes.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Our region is brimming with talent: We have brilliant people, globally renowned businesses and world-class universities. Yet there is so much more potential waiting to be released.
“This Prospectus shows the sheer scale of what’s happening across our region, offering investors the opportunity to be at the forefront of driving a new era of growth, good jobs and affordable homes – the things that really matter to people.
“We have a proud history of innovation and industry but now is the time to go further and faster than ever before. Now is the time to invest in the West Midlands.”
Mayor Richard Parker has presented global investers with more than £19bn of opportunities to drive growth
Several Birmingham schemes set out in the prospectus will benefit from a new Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), the biggest and most ambitious of its kind in the UK.
They include the Sports Quarter, the £4 billion Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, the HS2 station at Curzon Street, the £1.9 billion Smithfield development, and a major creative industries hub in Digbeth – all part of the Birmingham and North Solihull Gateway Project.
The MDC will give investors speed, scale and certainty, helping to deliver major schemes more quickly by bringing together planning powers, land, funding and delivery under one roof, cutting bureaucracy.
The Prospectus will play a key role for the region when the Mayor joins Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Secretary of State for Business and Trade Peter Kyle, in co-hosting the Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham tomorrow (Tuesday October 21).
The Summit will give the West Midlands and other regions the chance to showcase to global investors their potential for growth, innovation, and talent.
The West Midlands has seen a wave of inward investment over recent years and is now home to the country’s largest advanced manufacturing base and fastest-growing tech sector outside London. It also boasts world-leading clusters in clean energy, health tech and professional services.
Bridget Rosewell CBE. the Mayor’s independent economic advisor
Leading economist Bridget Rosewell CBE, who has been appointed by the Mayor to provide independent advice on aligning the region’s capital investments with his Growth Plan, said: “The West Midlands is a modern economic powerhouse with world leading sectors and an ambition and capacity to match.
“The Mayor’s Growth Plan provides us with a clear route to sustained growth. By bringing together transport, commercial development and housing in an aligned approach we can create dynamic new places, strengthen communities and give investors clarity on what’s coming, where and when.
“This is about crowding in private sector investment, sequencing schemes intelligently and moving from plan to spades in the ground with speed and confidence.”
The Prospectus showcases regional strengths and highlights investment opportunities underpinned by more than £2.4bn of new transport infrastructure to provide fast, reliable connections across the region.
Key opportunities include:
- Birmingham and North Solihull Gateway – including the Sports Quarter, Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, Arden Cross and Digbeth Creative Quarter – all underpinned by HS2 linking central Birmingham to central London in just 49 minutes
- Coventry Growth Arc: A major growth and regeneration programme with a focus on clean energy and advanced manufacturing including Greenpower Park, SEGRO developments and City Centre South
- Black Country Growth Corridor – connected by a new £450m Metro tram route with innovative advanced manufacturing supply chain firms, education and healthcare hubs and major residential centres. Key schemes include the regeneration of West Bromwich town centre and Portersfield in Dudley
- Wolverhampton to Walsall Growth Cluster – includes the Green Innovation Corridor, i54 Business Park, M6 Junction 10 Employment Area and key housing developments such as Smithgate in Wolverhampton city centre
- Innovation, Clusters and Smart Energy – cementing the region’s position as a leader in innovation-led growth across the health, clean technology and digital industries. Key areas for investment include Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, Tyseley Energy Park, UK Battery Industrialisation Centre and Digbeth Studios
- Residential Pipeline – with a growing population and strong housing demand the region has a pipeline of development opportunities including major schemes like Ladywood in Birmingham, New Union St and Whitefriars in Coventry, Mell Square in Solihull and Station Quarter in Walsall