Losing out in C4 bid ‘not a negative forWest Midlands’
LOSING out on the Channel 4 bid to Leeds was ‘not a negative on the West Midlands’, according to a government minister.
And she believes that announcing £1.2 million of investment into creative industries in the region shows that the government ‘still has faith’ in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Creative Industries Minister and MP for Stourbridge, Margot James, visited Dudley on Friday to announce £20 million of funding for creative industries across the country, including £1.2 million for the West Midlands.
The money is aimed at helping link creative companies to investors, allowing those businesses that want to expand to do so.
The announcement of funding comes just over a month after Channel 4 announced that Birmingham had lost out on becoming the home of its new headquarters, with Leeds ultimately winning the competition.
However, speaking at Dudley College, the Minister insisted that losing out on the bid did not reflect negatively on the West Midlands.
“I felt it [the loss] very keenly myself as a local constituency MP,” she said. “But this announcement shows that we still have faith in our creative industries and that we’re still looking to move them forward.
“At Dudley College, after our tour, I spoke to the students and staff, and so did [mayor] Andy Street. He pointed out that the West Midlands has more fast growing creative counties than anywhere else in the country.
“So I don’t want people to think that just because we didn’t get Channel 4 here in Birmingham that that somehow casts a gloomy note on our sector of creative businesses in the West Midlands, because it most certainly doesn’t.
“There were a lot of factors that went into C4’s decision making, and they chose Leeds in the end. And I
Andy Street is basically a lightning rod for loads and loads of investment in this region, so we should be confident.
happen to know that one of the factors was that they really are passionate about getting out into the regions, and I think deep down they were a bit concerned about how easy it is to get to Birmingham from London, and that it would just be so easy for their executives to commute, rather than really put down routes and relocate.
“So if anything held us back it was that, and that was the one thing we couldn’t change.
“It’s certainly not a negative on the West Midlands that we didn’t win that bid. We’ve won other things. We’ve won City of Culture for Coventry, we’ve got the Commonwealth Games, we’ve got this announcement here.
“Andy Street is basically a lightning rod for loads and loads of investment in this region, so we should be confident.”