Advantage West Midlands
The West Midlands comprises the counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire; the unitary authorities of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Telford and Wrekin; and the seven metropolitan districts of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. The Chief Executive of AWM is Mick Laverty and Nick Paul is the Chair of the Board.
The West Midlands has a strong history of innovation and entrepreneurship, responding positively to economic change and continually reinventing itself to remain a significant player in national and international economic growth. The industrial world was born in a valley in Shropshire, the product of entrepreneurship, technology, skills, natural assets and a passion to succeed. Three centuries later those same elements are again driving the West Midlands forward – building new businesses, applying diverse talents to new fields of endeavour and translating knowledge into economic success. With its revised strategy, Connecting to Success, hailed as the UK’s first low carbon regional economic strategy, the region is now aiming to position itself in the world as the leader in sustainable economic development.
The region has undergone significant economic changes over the last three decades with the services sector replacing manufacturing as the principal source of employment. It has the UK’s largest business and professional services sector outside of London. Nevertheless, the West Midlands is still one of the UK’s main manufacturing centres and the manufacturing industry represents 18.5% of the region’s GVA with over 19,000 sites employing more than 360,000 people, over 13.5% of the regional workforce.
Overall, the West Midlands region contributes 8% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product. However, despite recent improvements, GVA per head is around 11% lower than the UK average.
UK’s first low carbon Regional Economic Strategy has a vision of the region as, ‘a global centre where people and business choose to connect’. The West Midlands is already recognised as a great place to invest, work, learn, visit and live.
In shaping the future West Midlands the revised West Midlands Economic Strategy, Connecting to Success, focuses on the three main components of the economy – Business, Place and People plus the need to provide a Powerful Voice for the region:
- Business refers to the contribution that ‘businesses’ (a term used in its widest sense and including social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations) make to the productivity and growth of the regional economy, and to the demand for employment of the region’s workforce.
- Place focuses on the role of place in both attracting and enabling economic growth (i.e. high-quality locations and environments which encourage businesses and a highly skilled workforce); but also in dissuading or constraining economic activity (poor-quality environments can limit investment, reduce aspirations and lead to negative stereotyping).
- People refers to the contribution of the region’s population and their skills to the sustainable growth and increased productivity of the West Midlands economy; and to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to develop to their full potential.
- Powerful Voice articulates the West Midlands’ prosperity and growth and provides convincing advocacy of its needs, challenges and priorities. With a strong voice and a compelling evidence base, the region can attract increased investment, stimulate greater levels of ambition and animate support for its economic vision.
