Investment Prospectus 2022

The West Midlands is home to world-leading sectors, transformational infrastructure, large-scale brownfield regeneration projects and a rapidly increasing diverse population:

CONNECTIVITY AND DEVELOPMENT

• Location – 90% of the UK population and 92% of UK businesses are within four-hours’ drive time
• Connectivity and Infrastructure – HS2 will put us less than 40 minutes from Central London. We also have one of the fastest growing airports in Europe (Birmingham Airport) with linkages to the global economy, and excellent public transport connections
• 100% superfast broadband coverage and the UK’s 5G testing hub, with leading 5G coverage
• Housing delivery doubled over the last decade, with a strong brownfield focus and the largest house price growth of any region in 2020/21
• Hundreds of hectares of land ready for development along transport corridors and around transport nodes.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

• One of the fastest growing economies in the UK
• Highest levels of job creation from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outside of London
• Major investments by world renowned businesses including Goldman Sachs, HSBC, PWC and various Government departments
• Centres of research and innovation – such as the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, National Brownfield Institute, and the Advanced Manufacturing Catapult at Warwick.

PEOPLE

• Young, dynamic and fast-growing population – expected to grow by half a million over the next 20 years
• Almost a third of all residents (1.5 million) are under 25 years old
• World renowned university sector – with nine Universities, including two in the World’s Top 100, launching almost 59,000 graduates a year into the economy.

ENVIRONMENT AND QUALITY OF LIFE

• Energy, Environment and Zero Carbon – a compelling programme to hit net zero by 2041 including zero carbon neighbourhoods and zero carbon homes
• Biodiversity - Birmingham has one of the highest proportions of green space of any UK city and the region’s natural environment is a major asset
• Cultural assets – including globally recognised assets such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), leading sports clubs and facilities, major heritage assets, arts venues, and events. Coventry is the UK City of Culture in 2021/2022 and the Commonwealth Games are being hosted in Birmingham in 2022.

Our Vision: Inclusive Growth

• Economic/Sector Investment
• Strategic Partnerships
• Housing & Regeneration Investment
• Adult Education Investment
• Transport Investment
• Energy & Environment Investment
• Place-based and Thematic Priorities
• Healthy Communities

Our vision is for a more prosperous and well-connected region – a pioneer creating a greener, inclusive economy that all its residents and businesses can benefit from.

We have created a Plan for Growth to drive forward our region’s economy. Underpinning this is our determination to be a true innovator and world-class across a number of key growth sectors – Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS), Data Driven Health, Tech Creative, Low Carbon and Advanced Manufacturing.

To secure the investment needed to realise our vision we will continue to work closely with the wider regional team of local councils, Local Enterprise Partnerships, UK Government, private sector developers and investors.

We know that scale, land, and infrastructure are vital for investors and so we have focused our investments on:

• Growth corridors around key transport hubs and existing and planned transport routes
• Town centres and strategic sites
• Broader thematic and cluster investments

From cradle of the industrial revolution to leader in low carbon...

We have a clear plan to become a net zero carbon economy by 2041 and are seeking investment partners who will help us achieve that vision.