The central belt of England is home to 11 million people, with a strong advanced manufacturing and engineering base. The West Midlands features a large number of industrial cities, including Birmingham, England’s second city, while the East Midlands has some of the country’s most arable lands. However, per-head Gross Value Added (GVA) is one of the lowest in the UK, reflecting higher than national average unemployment and lower than average skills levels and investment in the region.
Find out more about the historic context, key issues and future research priorities of productivity in the Midlands in our insights paper, which sits alongside an executive summary: a high-level overview highlighting its productivity picture, including a scattergraph showing the disparities on a NUTS3 level in comparison with the UK average, the primary drivers and bottlenecks, a SWOT analysis and a look to the future.
Midlands Forum Contact
University of Warwick
andrew.todd@warwick.ac.uk
Black County LEP and Midlands Engine
Innovate UK
Good Fish Group
Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership
Trades Union Congress
Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce
EY
Lear
Coventry City Council
University of Warwick
Loughborough University School of Business and Economics
Aston University
Mechatronic
University of Warwick
West Midlands Combined Authority
West Midlands Growth Company
Michelin
Coventry & Warwickshire LEP
University of Warwick
University of Warwick
West Midlands Growth Company
West Midlands Combined Authority
University of Warwick
Staffordshire University
