Eight ‘shovel ready’ projects, ranging from the National Brownfield Land Institute to Very Light Rail developments are to benefit from £66 million of Government funding secured for the region of West Midlands. The money from the Government’s Getting Building Fund is aimed at projects which can be started quickly and completed within 18 months. This creates jobs and drives investment to aid the economic recovery following the coronavirus lockdown. The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) working with the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP, the Black Country LEP and the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP delivered the region’s prioritised list of projects to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which has been confirmed recently. Combined, the projects will create about 2,110 jobs, as well as support 1,419 construction jobs during development.
Projects
The projects are:
- £15.1m towards the redevelopment of University Station in Edgbaston
- £1m towards WM5G’s work with small and medium-sized business to develop groundbreaking apps
- £10.8m to provide innovation spaces and research laboratories at the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus
- £12.4m for the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre in Dudley where new modes of transport which are both green and cheaper and quicker to deliver than traditional tram or rail are being developed.
- The National Brownfield Land Institute, at the University of Wolverhampton, will receive £14.9m. It will research and develop new construction methods and ways of regenerating contaminated land
- £6m towards Coventry City of Culture to support various initiatives to make the most of the opportunities presented by 2021 – including the creation of a new heritage park
- Coventry’s Very Light Rail project to receive £1.8m
- £3.9m towards improved facilities at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry as part of the Commonwealth Games legacy scheme
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