Local context
Three cities, several counties and a manufacturing backbone
Unusually for an English region, the West Midlands is anchored by three cities rather than one: Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton, with Solihull, Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall forming the wider metropolitan area. The West Midlands Combined Authority and its elected mayor work across that area on transport, skills, housing and the economy, alongside the local councils rather than in place of them. Beyond the conurbation lie Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, each with an economy of its own.
Manufacturing remains the backbone. Government investment guidance notes that around a third of British-made cars come off West Midlands production lines, and names Jaguar Land Rover and Collins Aerospace among the major producers, supported by research centres such as the Manufacturing Technology Centre, WMG at the University of Warwick and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre. Further out, Stoke-on-Trent has been the centre of the ceramics industry for centuries, and the Cyber Valley cluster spanning Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Malvern holds the largest concentration of cyber security businesses outside London.
Services matter just as much. Birmingham is a long-established financial centre, the region is a national logistics hub thanks to its central position on the road and rail network, and the regional investment agency also promotes life sciences, low carbon technology, creative and digital work and future mobility. For a software partner, that mix means one week can bring a supplier portal for an automotive tier-two firm and the next a booking platform for a cathedral-city hotel.