UK spotlight: Birmingham

The UK's second biggest city has strong global connections and a keen eye on the future

- TAMSIN COCKS

The catchment of Birmingham airport is 20 per cent bigger than Canada's entire population

By the 19th century, Birmingham had earned its reputation as “the workshop of the world”, dominating manufacturing across the globe with everything from toys and guns, to jewellery and silverware.

Today, the city is still one of the UK’s manufacturing and engineering powerhouses, accounting for 20 per cent of the UK output. Key specialisations include metal works and the automotive and aviation industries, with the likes of Jaguar, Land Rover and Rolls Royce being major employers in the region.

Pre-pandemic the city experienced a surge in exports and business development: “We called it the Golden Decade between 2009 and 2019 because of the levels of growth that we saw,” says Raj Kandola, director of external affairs at Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.

This included welcoming a raft of Fortune 500 companies, such as HSBC, Goldman Sachs, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), who opened major new regional headquarters in response to the city’s growing dominance in financial and professional services.

Birmingham is also expanding into newer areas, particularly in the fields of life sciences, digital information and green tech.

“There are a number of key business opportunities that are predicated on the green industrial revolution,” says Kandola. “The West Midlands has the fastest growing technology network in the country outside of London, which is partly thanks to a strong ecosystem of top-class universities. Plus, a number of our anchor institutions like Jaguar and Land Rover are looking to pivot into green technology, so there is a real opportunity here.