West Midlands Futures Green Paper

This is the West Midlands Futures Green Paper. Its purpose is to support a conversation across the West Midlands to affirm and crystalise our long-term strategic economic priorities as a region, as we embark on a ten-year programme of economic transformation to increase our residents’ living standards.

Why now?

The West Midlands is approaching ten years of devolution. Against the backdrop of the opportunities and changes outlined above, now is the right time to be crystal clear about what our challenges and opportunities are both today and tomorrow, what we need to prioritise in order to address them, and the levers we will pull together to make change happen. This is not about ripping everything up and starting again. Rather the Green Paper brings together and evolves what we are already doing into a more coherent strategic fit for the decade and its opportunities ahead of us.

Who is it for?

The Green Paper is for everyone who has a shared stake and role in the West Midlands’ economic transformation: local government, universities, colleges and schools, businesses and private sector organisations, investors, central government, key public services, utilities and community organisations and our citizens themselves. Together, we will marshal our collective resources and capabilities to sustain economic transformation at scale. The WMCA has a leadership role in convening and investing in transformation, but in lockstep with our partners.

How will the Green Paper be used?

Our strategic economic priorities, as affirmed through this Green Paper, will help the West Midlands to focus its collective resources on what is going to shift the dial. Our priorities will guide how we use our existing and future devolved powers and budgets and provide a focus for the existing and new regional partnerships we will develop to deliver collective change. In the near-term, your responses to this Green Paper will shape the West Midlands Growth Plan due to be published in the summer. Looking beyond that, your responses will help to shape our approach to the West Midlands Spatial Development Strategy, our approach to public service innovation, and the new Net Zero Five Year Plan.

What’s in it?

Chapter 1 looks at economic growth and the development of our West Midlands Growth Plan, underpinned by detailed evidence—and The West Midlands Theory of Growth—that we have published alongside this report.

Chapter 2 is all about our places and how we will realise their full economic potential.

Chapter 3 looks at the importance of transforming our public services to make sure everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy life in this region.

Chapter 4 reminds us of the opportunities and challenges of our Net Zero future as we prepare to develop a second regional Five Year Plan to meet our #WM2041 target for net zero emissions.

Chapter 5 brings all of the above together, sets out how we will work together to turn our agenda for economic transformation into change on the ground and details how you can get involved in the conversation about the themes covered in the Green Paper.