PM reveals grant during visit to the West Midlands
AMAJOR extension of the Midland Metro funded with a £250 million government grant is set to create 8,000 new jobs.
Prime Minister Theresa May announced the money as she visited the region along with Chancellor Phillip Hammond on Monday.
The cash will fund an extension of the Metro from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill in the Black Country.
It is the first allocation from a new £1.7 billion Transforming Cities fund, designed to improve transport links and promote local growth within city regions across the country.
The money will go to the West Midlands Combined Authority, led by West Midlands Mayor Andy Street.
The new metro line will run from Wednesbury to the new DY5 Enterprise Zone for hightech businesses at Brierley Hill, passing through Dudley town centre, the Waterfront and Merry Hill, before terminating at Brierley Hill town centre. Other extensions on the cards include lines to Wolverhampton interchange and the proposed HS2 terminal at Curzon Street in Birmingham.
The government will also announce a major boost in spending on research and development, with an extra investment of £2.3 billion in 2021/22, raising total public investment in R&D to £12.5 billion in that year.
The West Midlands wanted £200 million for the scheme, leaving open the possibility that some cash from the grant will be left over for other projects.
Mr Street said: “The Midland Metro extension to Brierley Hill is the West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) priority transport project and the £250 million from government means we can get under way.
“The importance of this extension is difficult to understate. It will open up sites for housing and regeneration and reconnect Dudley and Brierley Hill to the rail network for the first time in decades.
“Perhaps most importantly, it connects the DY5 Enterprise Zone to the network and supercharges proposals to create thousands of jobs in Brierley Hill.
“This has been a long time coming – many decades in fact – but because of the WMCA presenting a compelling case to Government, we are finally able to start work, subject to board approval.
“We now begin looking at the next projects we want to fund, with the extension of the Metro to Eastside to connect with the HS2 station at Curzon and the reopening of the Camp Hill line very much in our sights.”
The measures are part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, designed to create good jobs.
Mrs May said: “One of my first actions as Prime Minister was to begin the development of a modern industrial strategy that will help businesses to create high-quality, well paid jobs right across the country.
“This is a new long-term approach to shaping a stronger and fairer economy for decades to come. It helps young people to develop the skills they need to take up the high-paid, highskilled jobs of the future.”
The importance of this extension is difficult to understate. It will open up sites for housing and regeneration Mayor Andy Street