Advantage West Midlands was the Regional Development Agency (RDA) for the West Midlands region of England, created to promote sustainable economic growth, regeneration, business investment and employment across the region. It was established under the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 as one of nine RDAs across England, and began operations in 1999. RDAs were non-departmental public bodies funded by central government but designed to work with local partners, businesses and councils to drive regional economic strategy, support businesses, attract investment, reclaim brownfield land, and help respond to economic shocks such as major industrial closures and recessions.
Advantage West Midlands focused on economic development across a broad geography that included Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and other cities and counties of the West Midlands. It invested in inward investment, business support, skills development and major physical regeneration projects. Its portfolio included contributions to high-profile schemes such as the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station, strategic business site development like the i54 project in Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire, science park initiatives, and the refurbishment of key historic commercial buildings. Over its life it supported tens of thousands of businesses, created or safeguarded many jobs, levered in private sector investment and contributed to significant brownfield land redevelopment.
The West Midlands Regional Assembly, the regional planning chamber, worked alongside Advantage West Midlands and helped channel local views into strategic planning, but it was distinct from the RDA itself. Advantage West Midlands’s headquarters and primary operations were based in Birmingham, from where it coordinated activities across the region and consulted with local authorities, business networks and central government.
In 2010 the newly formed UK coalition government announced a change in approach to regional economic development, favouring localism and smaller scale partnerships. As part of this shift all of England’s RDAs were set to be abolished. Advantage West Midlands closed on 31 March 2012, bringing to an end more than a decade of regional development activity and investment. The closure was part of a national programme to reduce government expenditure and to replace centrally funded regional bodies with locally driven structures.
After the abolition of the RDAs, their responsibilities and programmes were transferred to a mix of other organisations. Many functions relating to business support, employment, skills, innovation and inward investment were distributed between central government departments, successor organisations such as Business Link/UK Trade & Investment, and critically to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). LEPs are partnerships between local authorities and business leaders intended to identify and pursue economic priorities at a sub-regional level. In the West Midlands, this saw the emergence of new partnerships such as the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP, the Black Country LEP, and others covering Coventry & Warwickshire and Staffordshire, each working to attract investment, support jobs and shape local economic strategy.
Although Advantage West Midlands no longer exists, its decade of investment helped lay foundations for many regeneration projects and economic strategies that continue under new governance arrangements. The switch to LEPs and a more localized economic development model marked a significant change in how regional growth is pursued in the UK, with Birmingham and the West Midlands now championing locally led priorities and business-driven funding strategies.
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