Regeneration schemes will have 'massive impact'

The West Midlands Investment Zone aims to attract billions in investment and create thousands of new jobs

An ambitious regeneration scheme to bring billions in investment and create thousands of jobs will have a “massive impact” on the West Midlands.

At a meeting, West Midlands Combined Authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee were given an update on how the Investment Zone plans were progressing.

And bosses said they believed the potential impact the three sites in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton have will be huge in years to come.

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The 25-year zone is focussed on driving growth in advanced manufacturing, green industries, health-tech and underlying digital technologies and aims to bring in £5.5 billion investment and create more than 30,000 new jobs.

It will benefit from tax incentives, direct funding and business rate retention within the zone, which could see up to £1.5bn reinvested into the West Midlands instead of going into Government coffers.

These are the Birmingham Knowledge Quarter – running northeast from the Birmingham City and Aston universities through Duddeston and Nechells to Aston.

The Quarter will offer tax incentives, business rates retention and receive £9m investment for public realm works and active travel infrastructure to help attract investment.

The Wolverhampton Green Innovation Corridor will create new green industries and skills through a partnership between the city council and university with £7m investment for land remediation and key infrastructure.

The Coventry-Warwick Gigapark at Coventry Airport. Anchored by a new battery gigafactory and associated businesses and technologies, the site will get tax incentives, business rates retention and £23m investment for land remediation, infrastructure and connection to power grids.

Committee members were told significant progress was being made across all three sites.

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Steve Bowyer, Head of WM Investment, said: “The Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, immediately beside Curzon HS2 in a Mayoral Development Corporation area in the heart of the country’s second biggest city, will have a massive impact as part of that wider city growth.

“If you come in on a train to St Pancreas and you look out to the right where you’ve got the Crick Institute and if you look to the left you got Kings Cross and all of that regeneration.

“Smaller scale but that is the potential for Birmingham Knowledge Quarter. Huge and with the universities you’ve got here, you’ve got a real breadth of skills.

“Coventry and Warwick Investment Zone is a large site which genuinely could be a national player in terms of battery manufacturing and EV supply chain.

“I’m not exaggerating that because the planning permission is in place, enquiries coming through are significant.

“The Green Innovation Corridor, is hugely important as part of that strategic corridor as a whole.”