SME Manufacturers encouraged to get involved in the West Midlands’ drive to be at the forefront of sustainable innovation and investment

The West Midlands has long been synonymous with reinvention. From its industrial heritage to its more recent reputation for advanced manufacturing, digital technology and green innovation, the region continues to evolve. At the heart of this next chapter sits not only the West Midlands Investment Zone, but also a major new business support initiative designed to ensure local firms are central to that growth.

The Supply Chain Transition Programme is a key part of the West Midlands Investment Zone’s ambition to deliver long-term, inclusive economic growth. Designed specifically for manufacturing SMEs located in the Investment Zone, it is a fully funded support programme aimed at helping businesses diversify, innovate and secure new opportunities in high-growth sectors.

Funded through the West Midlands Investment Zone and the West Midlands Combined Authority, the programme provides one-to-one specialist coaching, tailored technical advice, leadership training, and access to research and development funding.

At its core, it is about helping businesses translate their existing capabilities into new markets—supporting firms to develop new products to help solve current and future supply chain challenges, strengthen leadership capacity and connect directly with buyers and OEMs.

Crucially, the programme supports the West Midlands Growth Plan and is focused on enabling SMEs to pivot into the sectors shaping the future economy, including light electric vehicles and battery technology, smart energy systems, aerospace, health tech and med tech, modern and low carbon construction and other green industries.
Beyond individual business growth, the programme has a wider regional purpose: to future-proof the West Midlands’ manufacturing base, strengthen local supply chains and ensure that the benefits of inward investment are captured locally.

1.    Can we start by asking about you, Steve, what’s your professional background and how long have you been in post with the Investment Zone?

I’ve been leading the delivery of the WM Investment Zone since it launched in April 2024 but played a key role in developing the proposition to government from its launch in March 2023.

I guess you could say I epitomise the ‘squiggly career’ paradigm! Having started out in building conservation and then moving to heritage regeneration, this broadened out to urban regeneration, which in turn connected with attracting inward investment and wider economic development with all its interconnectedness (skills, smart cities, business support).

Primarily, I’ve often been in the space between the public, private and third sector – leading arm’s length regeneration companies. It’s so rewarding connecting the dots to make sure everyone – most importantly residents – benefit.

2.    Can you give us an overview of the West Midlands Investment Zone - what is it and how will it impact the region?

Of course. I think the Investment Zone policy is one of government’s most comprehensive, integrated economic interventions. It offers the West Midlands capital funding to prepare key development sites and make them more attractive to investors. It also provides tax benefits which increases the incentives for investors to enquire about, and hopefully relocate to, those sites. Intelligently though, it also provides revenue funding that we are investing into local companies, through programmes like the Supply Chain Transition initiative, to enrich the ecosystem for new companies to land into.

Finally, on two of the sites, we have been able to secure business rate uplift retention for 25 years (so until 2049!). This can be used to pump-prime infrastructure investment and can be reinvested right across the region. It could be worth, if we get the sites away, up to £1.5bn of economic investment in the region.

3.    The three priority areas in the Investment Zone all sound very distinctive. How do you think this distinctiveness will help change the West Midlands economy for the future?

The West Midlands’ economy is fundamentally hugely diverse, with everything from advanced manufacturing and engineering in a full range of sectors, through to health-tech, creative industries and financial services. Let alone considerable strengths in digital and tech which are powering these industries into a resilient, dynamic and innovative world of the future.

So yes, you’re right, the three key sites within the IZ – remembering that the whole region is the Investment Zone and can benefit from it – are very distinctive: and deliberately so, to reflect that economic diversity. Equally, there are huge connections between them and tremendous opportunities if we collaborate across them.

The Coventry & Warwick Investment Zone based around Coventry Airport is focusing on battery development as the automotive and energy systems decarbonise. But that also plays into Wolverhampton’s Green Innovation Corridor and its focus on green industries, construction and computing, and the partnership there between the city council and university. That, in turn, is advancing and maximising digital, AI and 3D printing capabilities, which offers tremendous opportunities for the Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, which is advancing med tech and digital opportunities, among other life science innovations.

The West Midlands distinctiveness really is the diversity of its economy – we’re one of only a few of the UK’s regions that reflects all of government’s Modern Industrial Strategy key sectors. And I’d go further and say our distinction is also that our regional businesses are hugely adept at finding new opportunities in other sectors outside of their core industry.

4.    What will be the key economic benefits for businesses located in the Investment Zone priority areas?

Actually, within the three key sites, the benefits will be quite mixed. We’re investing capital into each of the sites to bring forward infrastructure or tackle land contamination. Alongside tax incentives in two of the sites, that’s very much geared to new development and investment – although some of the infrastructure will have wider benefits.

The real business benefits come from our approach to making the Investment Zone a genuinely ‘regional’ programme through some of our business support measures – particularly the Supply Chain Transition Programme, but also the investment into Midlands Mindforge which is looking to make equity funding into IP-rich companies and university spin-outs. 

5.    How do you envisage the Supply Chain Transition Programme will help deliver the Investment Zone ambitions, especially in creating opportunities for manufacturing SMEs?

That really does play into the diversity of the regional economy, doesn’t it. We know that businesses in the West Midlands are incredibly entrepreneurial – always looking for the next opportunity. It’s how we became the birthplace of the first industrial revolution and are leading the way on the digital and green revolutions. 

The Investment Zone was designed with local partners and central government to have the best chance of removing barriers that may stand in the way of enterprise and innovation – the twin engines of economic growth. By helping businesses to understand their strengths, capacity and capabilities, and supporting them to identify potential new routes to supply chains and how they can explore those productively, the Supply Chain Transition Programme will fuel those engines of growth.

6.    What will success look like for you in delivering the Investment Zone in the region? 

Well, there’s the hard metrics point isn’t there: new companies setting up; businesses growing as a result of new investment or supply chain opportunities opening up; more jobs being created and our residents being able to access those opportunities.
But I’d go more personal on this one: I want to hear individual people actually saying how they’ve benefitted through the Investment Zone. Getting underneath the metrics and into the lives that have been changed. That’s what removing barriers to growth should achieve.

7.    What should SMEs who are interested in future opportunities brought to the region through the Investment Zone be thinking about now and preparing?

Tap into the entrepreneurial spirit that enabled you to set up your company, or run it successfully since, and ask where the next opportunities could lie. The world is changing – whether that’s through the increase in digital technology, or the ever-growing crossovers between sectors (look at how manufacturing skills and technologies are influencing the medical sector for example). And then reach out to the Supply Chain Transition Programme team and explore those opportunities with trusted and expert support and advice.

For SMEs across the West Midlands, the message is simple: the opportunity is here, now.

The Supply Chain Transition Programme is open to manufacturing businesses looking to diversify, innovate and access new markets. With fully funded expert support, access to R&D funding, and direct connections to major buyers, it offers a practical route into the region’s fastest-growing sectors.

Businesses are encouraged to register their interest via Business Growth West Midlands or contact the programme team to explore how they can get involved.

In a region defined by its ability to adapt and lead, this is a chance not just to respond to change—but to shape it.

Get involved by filling out the Expression Of Interest form.