‘Now is the time to invest in West Midlands’ – mayor launches £19bn of growth opportunities
Mayor Richard Parker (pictured) has 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.
The mayor 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.”
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 today.
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.
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.
