Creating a distinctive regional offer
The West Midlands has a number of thriving centres, each with unique character, economic strengths, and cultural appeal. It is highly connected: 90% of the UK population is within a four-hour drive, with direct trains to 17 of the 20 largest cities. Birmingham New Street is the UK’s busiest station outside London, and Birmingham Airport connects to 130 global destinations.
Yet despite these assets, the region’s scale and complexity has contributed to the challenges of projecting a cohesive and compelling identity. The economic strengths of individual places, such as Birmingham’s financial services, Coventry’s mobility innovation, or Wolverhampton’s low carbon economy, have too often been promoted in silos. This dilutes the regionwide value proposition. Fragmented messaging risks obscuring the economy of scale and interconnected innovation ecosystem that make the West Midlands so investible.
It’s also important to note that the West Midlands’ scale and economic diversity can also be a significant advantage. Recognised as having sector strengths across all eight priority areas in the UK’s Industrial Strategy, the significant potential for cross-sector innovation is evident. For example, the gaming and eSports cluster centred in Leamington Spa is increasingly collaborating with the automotive cluster around Coventry to develop immersive technologies and new digital product experiences. These connections demonstrate the region’s capacity to fuse creative, digital and manufacturing excellence, strengthening its identity as a testbed for next-generation innovation.
The West Midlands is fostering innovative collaborations between its gaming and automotive sectors. A notable example is the partnership between TATA Motors and Leamington Spa’s Playground Games. Together, they transformed a concept from the Forza Racing franchise into a physical prototype vehicle. This collaboration was further enhanced by Warwick Innovations, the commercial arm of the University of Warwick, which developed a scalable, modular software-based concept for automotive design based on the prototype.
Such cross-sector initiatives demonstrate the region’s capacity to integrate creative digital expertise with advanced manufacturing, reinforcing the West Midlands’ position as a hub for next-generation innovation.
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Recognising this, the West Midlands Growth Company has launched the ‘It Starts Here’ campaign. This is a regionwide narrative designed to reposition the West Midlands on the global stage as a hub for innovation, investment, and transformative change. The campaign unites sector-focused messages under a single compelling brand, aligning closely with the region’s ambition to lead in areas like smart energy systems, digital and creative technology, and MedTech, as well as innovation within financial and professional services.
Financial and related professional services firms have a pivotal role to play in reinforcing this narrative. They are not only part of one of the region’s most visible growth sectors but also enablers of success across all others. Ensuring this shared identity resonates with investors, talent, and the Government will be key to securing anchor investments, influencing national policy, and demonstrating the region’s capacity to lead the next phase of UK growth.
We recommend:
Closer regional investment collaboration, to enhance how investment opportunities are surfaced, structured and promoted across the West Midlands. This should build on the momentum of the ‘It Starts Here’ campaign by positioning financial and related professional services firms as convenors, advisers and advocates in support of the WMCA’s engagement with local institutions and national and international investors. The collaboration should aim to strengthen the visibility and investment appeal of high-potential regional projects and clusters. It would do so by combining the convening power of local authorities with the commercial expertise of financial and related professional services firms, helping to translate regional priorities into market-ready propositions.
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Embedding a senior HMT and Department for Business and Trade (DBT) presence in the region, not as symbolic satellite offices, but as active delivery hubs. These hubs would enhance local policy responsiveness, ensure regional insight is embedded into national decision-making, and demonstrate long-term government commitment. This would help attract investors, align funding streams, and accelerate delivery of key economic initiatives.
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A coordinated industry development plan for financial and related professional services, building on the region’s established High Growth Cluster model and aligning with both Invest 2035 and the forthcoming West Midlands Local Growth Plan. While the SuperTech cluster provides a strong foundation for this work, its focus is specifically on innovative professional services technology. The broader development plan should seek to define clear objectives for growth, innovation, and talent across the wider financial and related professional services landscape, supported by delivery frameworks tailored to firms’ needs throughout the region. Furthermore, it should outline how the Mayoral Combined Authority will partner with financial and related professional services firms as a strategic enablers of wider regional priorities, including the development of advanced manufacturing, green technology, life science, and digital & creative sectors. Embedding financial and related professional services at the heart of the regional growth model will not only strengthen the industry itself but also help unlock investment, capability, and resilience across the whole economy.
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A formal government–industry coordination mechanism, building on the joint governance structures already established through the Single Settlement between the West Midlands Combined Authority and UK Government. This mechanism should ensure that financial and related professional services firms are consistently represented in regular strategic engagement with departments such as DBT and HMT. It would provide a platform for twoway dialogue on industry-wide issues, enable coordinated responses to emerging challenges, and ensure that the perspectives of financial and related professional services firms help to inform the design and delivery of regional and national growth plans. Its focus would be on unlocking barriers to investment, aligning delivery with shared priorities, and maintaining momentum on implementation. Strengthening this channel of communication would deepen trust, enhance visibility, and embed long-term public–private partnership at the heart of regional economic leadership.
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Place-making must be people-centred. From high-quality commercial districts to cultural programming and safety initiatives, the lived experience of workers and residents remains central to talent attraction and investment. Financial and professional services firms can contribute directly, not only as employers, but as place-makers and conveners for wider regeneration and opportunity. There is also a growing opportunity for major firms in the industry to support WMCA-led programmes aimed at tackling barriers to employment, such as deprivation and poor health. By engaging more closely in efforts to increase workforce participation, firms can help unlock local talent and contribute to more inclusive economic growth.