Funding paves the way for thousands of new jobs at key employment sites
Mayor Richard Parker’s plans to create thousands of new jobs has been given a major boost with the first funding allocated to get two prime sites shovel ready for companies to move into.
The money, part of the West Midlands’ flagship Investment Zone, will help establish Birmingham Knowledge Quarter and Wolverhampton Green Innovation Corridor as employment hubs for advanced manufacturing, green industries, health-tech and digital technologies – eventually creating more than 23,000 jobs.
Early-stage preparations will now begin as part of a long-term plan that will use £16m of Investment Zone funding to clean up land and make significant improvements to infrastructure to help attract investors and businesses looking to relocate.
Investing in jobs, skills, training, and apprenticeships is at the heart of the Mayor’s priority to tackle youth unemployment and make sure everyone has a job that pays well.
This is the second major Investment Zone announcement following confirmation last month of £23m to help deliver a battery manufacturing and technology hub at the Coventry and Warwick Gigapark, another Investment Zone site.
The Mayor will chair a meeting of the West Midlands Investment Zone Board today (Thursday 6 March) to consider its end of year review which highlights the success in mobilising the programme in all three key sites and the work to launch business support programmes across the region from May 2025.
CGIs of Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, left, and Wolverhampton Green Innovation Corridor, right.
The Mayor said: “Our Investment Zone has the potential to deliver £5.5bn of investment and create 30,000 jobs in the region.
“It is essential that we develop these sites, attracting investors and growing industries, to reignite the economic growth this region has long been waiting for.
“In less than a year I’ve secured £40m to get these sites out of the starting blocks.
“That’s how I’m driving our economy to the next level and bringing real and lasting change for people living right across the West Midlands.”
The Investment Zone is being led by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
It covers the whole region and is powered through these three specific sites which will each benefit from a range of direct funding secured by the Mayor and in some cases tax incentives.
In addition to the new jobs and investment, around £1.5bn of business rates over the zone’s 25-year lifespan will also be retained and reinvested in the region instead of going back into government coffers.
Birmingham Knowledge Quarter – running northeast from the Aston and Birmingham City universities through Duddeston and Nechells to Aston – will focus on investment and jobs in the health and medical tech sector and also in wider digital technology capability industries.
Wolverhampton Green Innovation Corridor will support the transition to the emerging green sectors such as clean-tech, sustainable construction, cyber security and green engineering through a partnership between the City of Wolverhampton Council and University of Wolverhampton. It will link the university’s Springfield Campus and Science Park.
Cllr Sharon Thompson, deputy leader at Birmingham City Council, said: “The Knowledge Quarter will be a world-class, city-centre innovation cluster focused on science, technology and enterprise that will deliver an estimated 20,000 jobs and a 4,000 home ‘eco-town’ – with over a third of those homes being affordable.
“This is great news for the city, and this part of Birmingham, providing much-needed investment, jobs, skills, homes and infrastructure.”
Cllr Chris Burden, City of Wolverhampton Council cabinet member for city development, jobs and skills, said: “The Green Innovation Corridor will build on the city’s strengths in high value manufacturing, green technologies, digital innovation, brownfield land regeneration and sustainable construction to create new, quality jobs and support businesses.
“The West Midlands Investment Zone funding and status will help us deliver key sites in Wolverhampton and engage in region-wide business support, skills and recruitment programmes to ensure that local people benefit from the opportunities created.”
Funding has already been confirmed by the Mayor to deliver the Coventry and Warwick Gigapark site, anchored by Greenpower Park, the UK’s Centre for Electrification and Clean Energy
Fully developed, the Gigapark could create up to 6,000 jobs in battery manufacturing along with other associated electric vehicle and energy storage supply chain businesses.
Find out more about the opportunities at all three of the West Midlands Investment Zone sites at www.wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/economy-and-innovation/west-midlands-investment-zone/.