Region to showcase £20m of properties at conference

AROUND £20 billion worth of investment opportunities across the West Midlands will be showcased at a property conference later this year.

A delegation from the region is attending the UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Investment Forum (UKREiiF) over three days in May for the first time.

Investment opportunities from Birmingham, Coventry and Warwickshire, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton will be highlighted at the conference which brings together key decisionmakers from the investment and real estate markets. These will include the recently announced West Midlands investment zone, comprising Coventry and Warwickshire Gigapark, Birmingham Knowledge Quarter and Wolverhampton’s Green Innovation Corridor.

Topics such as levelling up, devolution and brownfield development will be on the agenda at the West Midlands pavilion, alongside the discussions around the impact of creative clusters, innovation-led real estate and the night-time economy on regeneration. The West Midlands delegation at the Leeds event will be led by inward investment agency West Midlands Growth Company and will include senior public sector figures.

Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton said: “The West Midlands is a region of huge opportunity and potential and, by working together, we have so much to showcase at UKREiiF.

“The wealth of development opportunities across our region is almost unparalleled and will deliver homes, jobs and opportunities for our residents.”

Neil Rami, chief executive of the West Midlands Growth Company, added: “One of the great strengths of the West Midlands is the collective scale at which we can operate.

“Taking the combined power of our local authorities means we’ll be speaking with investors about over £20 billion worth of investment opportunities – all with the potential to continue driving transformational change across our cities, towns and high streets.”