Strategy

Advantage West Midlands has undertaken and commissioned a range of analysis to deepen understanding of local and regional economic issues and to provide an evidence base for policies and interventions. This analysis may continue to be valuable to local and sub-regional partners going forward.

View Economic Research and Analysis

Since 1999, Advantage West Midlands has led the economic development and regeneration of the region.  One of its key responsibilities has been to co-ordinate the development of a Regional Economic Strategy (RES) in collaboration with partners from business, academia, local government and the voluntary sector.

The West Midlands RES has been updated several times - to take account of changing economic challenges and opportunities.  ‘Connecting to Success’ was the last version, launched in December 2007.  This strategy was developed following the largest consultation exercise of its kind ever undertaken in the West Midlands.

The process to develop the 2007 RES pages provide access to the various resources used to develop the strategy, including development of the evidence base, consultation on policy choices, sustainability appraisal, and the production of the final strategy. 

Reference documents:

The West Midlands Regional Observatory (WMRO) (Opens in new window) was established by Advantage West Midlands with a mission, “To offer public agencies, private firms and voluntary and community organisations in the West Midlands improved access to well-organised information, thereby enhancing and sharing understanding in and of the region and its sub-regions and improving the quality of strategy formulation, policy making and service provision.”

As part of the closure of Advantage West Midlands, ownership of WMRO transferred to Marketing Birmingham in April 2011.  The resources (Opens in new window) produced by WMRO are available via the Marketing Birmingham website.

The mission of RegenWM was to promote and develop regeneration excellence in the West Midlands. Their objectives were:

• To improve the skills, capacities and competencies of those working in the sector, in particular cross-occupational working;

• To provide information and intelligence to encourage the pursuit of excellence through the uptake of good practice; and

• To influence policy and decision making networks regionally and nationally.

RegenWM was set up in 2003 to address the skills shortages in the regeneration sector. Their roots were in the urban task force and the subsequent Government White Paper which noted the need for better information and intelligence in the sector if we were to achieve renaissance. RegenWM closed at the end of November 2010.

View the good practice information and case studies (Opens in new window) assembled by RegenWM.