Business location coordination and foreign direct investment
New trade deals are being struck across the globe opening markets for West Midlands’ business and creating the conditions to bring foreign direct investors to the West Midlands. That investment can be transformative for the region, creating new jobs and bringing new expertise and capacity to our supply chains that increase the region’s comparative advantage.
The WMCA commissions the West Midlands Growth Company to lead location coordination in a way that serves the needs of business. Business location coordination, with local authorities, central government, universities and business groups, means being proactive to land major investment across the whole region by helping potential investors understand how the West Midlands makes their firm stronger.
The major business location coordination work that will support the West Midlands Plan for Growth cluster opportunities include:
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Delivery of the £23 million Business and Tourism Programme2. Led by the West Midlands Growth Company, the Programme is an innovative partnership with Government departments that capitalises on the global buzz created by the Commonwealth Games to secure more than £650 million of new overseas investment into the UK, and create £7 million of additional export deals by 2027, in priority sectors that align with the Plan for Growth clusters.
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Securing gear-shift private investment through the West Midlands Investment Prospectus3. The prospectus covers some £20 billion of housing, commercial and industrial projects right across the region and was launched at MIPIM in Cannes in March 2022. The UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum in May 2022 saw the launch of the West Midlands’ ground-breaking £4 billion partnership with L&G on a seven-year programme to use private investment to help the region level up.
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Pursuing ambitious further powers and resources from Government through the Trailblazing Devolution Deal for our “Global West Midlands” plan. Our intention is to extend the Business and Tourism Programme’s reach and duration by co-designing and co-delivering an Internationalisation Strategy with Government. This will further embed trade and investment services into local business support provision, secure funding to boost exporters into key markets in priority clusters, and empower the region to use the Global Britain Investment Fund to incentivise new private investment in those clusters and supply chains in the West Midlands Plan for Growth. “Global West Midlands” also aims to secure a formal role for the Mayor in negotiating free trade agreements, putting the West Midlands at the heart of ambitious trade deals with new markets. It also seeks influence over the way the Government’s Office for Investment champions the West Midlands’ narrative to attract transformative capital funding from Sovereign Wealth Funds and institutional investors across the globe.