Birmingham is ‘best performing city’

According to the Cushman & Wakefield European Cities Monitor 2009, Birmingham is the ‘best performing city’ in the country in terms of improvement on last year’s ranking.
The influential survey of 500 of Europe’s largest companies shows Birmingham rising seven places from 21st to 14th as the best European city for business, overtaking Manchester in the [...]

Speakers announced for the 2009 conference

One month to go until the Observatory’s 2009 conference - “West Midlands: Fit for the Future?” – on Tuesday 20th October at the Ramada Hotel in Sutton Coldfield.
Book online or fax us a booking form
Entitled “West Midlands: Fit for the Future?”, the conference will follow on from a book of the same name launched by the [...]

ONS article investigates economic productivity in urban versus rural areas

Contrasts in the economic productivity of urban versus rural local authorities, and the factors contributing to the varying performance of the economies of English regions, are both the subject of an article in the latest edition of Economic & Labour Market Review.
The article in the ONS publication takes a detailed look at Gross Value Added per filled job (GVA [...]

Developing a high growth knowledge economy in the West Midlands

Knowledge intensive industries rely on innovation and knowledge to gain competitive advantage and, although the sector has grown rapidly in recent years, the West Midlands has struggled to attract these activities.
Through a state of the region dialogue on the West Midlands’ knowledge economy (PDF, 383kb), the Observatory has identified a range of actions to address this, developed and [...]

Observatory launches new book ‘West Midlands: Fit for the Future?’

A new book from the Observatory, West Midlands: Fit for the Future?, was launched yesterday.
The book aims to stimulate debate, promote discussion and influence policy on the future growth of the West Midlands region. The focus is on the future prosperity of the West Midlands, rather than on the effects of the recession, and exploring [...]

Tender for women’s enterprise research

The Women’s Enterprise Centre of Expertise has released a tender to conduct women’s enterprise research in the West Midlands.
The deadline for submissions is 21st July 2009.
Research rationale
There is currently a gap in regional women’s enterprise research which takes a strategic view of policy, documentary and research evidence, even though much has been done to promote [...]

Regional perceptions indicator for the West Midlands

England’s glory or England’s shame – what’s your opinion of the West Midlands?
We all have perceptions about places and they shape what we do, where we go and how we invest.
Because of this we are now running a research project to find out what perceptions people have about the West Midlands, and how it compares with [...]

Heart of enterprise: West Midlands feature in the Guardian

Wednesday’s Guardian newspaper included a special supplement to the Society Guardian all about the West Midlands, Heart of enterprise. If you missed it, all of the articles are available online.
The supplement includes commentary by Ian Austin MP, who re-iterated points made during his inaugural speech as Regional Minister for the West Midlands at the Observatory’s [...]

Evaluation of business support services

Business support services such as Business Link, Manufacturing Advisory Service and Train to Gain are an important part of the assistance offered to business to help them start, grow and prosper.
The last three years have seen significant changes in the way this support has been organised and delivered and the time is now right to evaluate [...]

Briefings on current and forthcoming Observatory research

At our recent Annual Conference there were four printed briefing papers on the Observatory booth. These briefing papers introduce four key current and forthcoming research projects.
If you didn’t get a copy, the briefings are available to download below:

State of the Region (PDF, 99KB)
Regional Integrated Economic Assessment (PDF, 66KB)
Integrated Policy Model (PDF, 63KB)
Regional Skills Assessment 2008: [...]

West Midlands Regional Integrated Economic Assessment published

The West Midlands is the first English region to produce a Regional Integrated Economic Assessment. The aim of the project is to provide an assessment of the performance of the West Midlands’ economy and of the factors which contribute to it. It also assesses the relative position of the different parts of the region.
The Assessment [...]

Small and medium-sized enterprise 2007 statistics published

The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has just published its 2007 Statistics on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK and its regions, including a statistical press release and a suite of data tables.
This year’s release includes the bi-annual regional breakdown of the national figures, listing the numbers of enterprises [...]