Birmingham City Centre Enterprise Zone takes huge step forward with approval of investment plan


The Birmingham City Centre Enterprise Zone – which is forecast to create 40,000 jobs over the next 25 years – has moved forward after an investment plan worth over £125m to kick-start the development was approved. 

This first phase of activity includes an investment of over £60m into infrastructure in the Westside part of the City to help unlock developments such as Paradise Circus, £25m for the extension of the Metro from New Street to Centenary Square and £40m to support site development and business growth activity. 

This support includes investment in digital connectivity worth £500,000, a business development package worth £3.5m and £1.5m towards skills and training, enhancing the level of funding already available for initiatives in these areas. 

The Enterprise Zone was approved by Government to provide specific areas where a combination of financial incentives reduced planning restrictions and other support is used to encourage the creation of new businesses and jobs, while contributing to the growth of local and national economies. 

The first phase of activity aims to accelerate growth in the City Centre where new employment-creating business activity can take place and where a framework for growth is already established in the form of the Big City Plan – the blueprint for investors which shows how the city will be transformed over the next 20 years. 

Birmingham’s unique approach to an Enterprise Zone comprises 26 sites across the city centre, covering 68 hectares, in seven clusters focused on the business and financial services, ICT, creative industries and digital media sectors. 

The Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership and Birmingham City Council, the accountable body, have been working since the announcement of the Enterprise Zone in July 2011 on the framework to deliver the proposals. 

Because Government allows LEPs to retain any business rates growth within the zone for a period of at least 25 years, it is then possible to use this revenue to unlock the growth potential in the EZ and support delivery of the LEP’s objectives for the region.

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