Midlands
With a population of over 10 million, the Midlands generates more than £230 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA). That’s equivalent to around 13% of the UK economy.
The Midlands is at the forefront of technologies such as industrial digitisation, life sciences and alternative fuels. It's home to world-class assets and centres of innovative excellence. The region is ideally placed for the distribution of manufactured goods, reaching 92% of the UK population within 4 hours. Birmingham is at the heart of one of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects, HS2, and hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Expanding your business
The Midlands is at the forefront of technologies such as industrial digitisation, life sciences and alternative fuels. It’s home to world-class assets and centres of innovative excellence. One example is the National Automotive Innovation Centre in Warwick. Specialising in engineering and design, it’s the largest research centre of its kind in Europe.
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Investing capital
The Midlands Region is one of the UKs leading destinations for real estate investment. The Midlands has a growing offer across the private rental sector (PRS) which is one of the strongest clusters for investment outside of London. The region is also home to global firms such as Goldman Sachs, Rolls Royce and HSBC.
Buying goods and services
More than 500 global destinations are connected to the West Midlands by air with approximately 100 direct flight destinations served by 30. In the summer months, 40,000 passengers a day pass through Birmingham airport and £100,000 is being invested every day over the next decade to improve the standrd of the airport. East Midlands Airport is the UK’s busiest ‘pure’ cargo airport, carrying over 320,000 tonnes of cargo a year. Excellent sea-based access to the UK through the Port of Grimsby is also available.
Other opportunities
- Over 100,000
- graduates per year from the region’s 20 universities
- 850,000
- businesses located in the region
- 600,000
- homes needed in the next 15 years
- £239 billion
- GVA generated by the Midlands per year
Strategic markets
Future mobility
The Midlands has a long industrial heritage. This history of innovation in transport, and its continuation, gives the region clear advantages in future mobility initiatives. These are already generating significant investment opportunities, such as an on-road test bed for connected and autonomous vehicles.
Food and drink
The Midlands has the UK’s largest concentration of food processors and supply chain companies, with around 50,000 firms. The sector benefits from centres of excellence and specialist support organisations across the region.
Life sciences
The region has a world-class research and innovation infrastructure, including science and technology parks and business incubation facilities. These facilities are coupled with the delivery of knowledge exchange programmes. Healthcare and life sciences companies contribute 8.4% of GVA to the regional economy.
Case study
UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC)
The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) is a pioneering concept in the race to develop battery technologies to support the transition to Net Zero.
UKBIC is an open access scale-up facility with gigafactory scale capability. The upfront funding of UKBIC’s capability aims to reduce the expensive barriers to entry for large scale battery manufacturing opportunities.