What will the Midlands Engine do for the area?
Key to developing the Strategy has been the region’s 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships coming together to boost productivity, attract inward investment, increase connectivity and build a regional tourism offer.
Building on the modern Industrial Strategy, the Midlands Engine Strategy sets out the actions being taken to address productivity barriers across the Midlands, enabling businesses to create more jobs, export more goods and services, and grow their productivity.
It focuses on five key themes:
Trade and investment
Undertaking Midlands Engine trade missions and hosting Midlands Engine inward investment visits with the goal of presenting the Midlands Engine to investors at the MIPIM property convention (the annual global property event held in Cannes, France). Midlands Engine also focuses efforts on building a strong regional business visitor and tourism offer.
Transport
Developing the vision and strategy for transforming transport connectivity across the Midlands Engine region through Midlands Connect, the cross-region group, which The Marches LEP is a part of, working towards better integrated transport systems across the Midlands.
Read more about how The LEP is supporting Transport
Innovation and Enterprise
Supporting industrial clusters to realise their potential, and building a stronger network of regional science parks, as well as a higher education forum. The Midlands Engine Science and Innovation Audit can be found on the downloads section of this page.
Skills
Developing a more comprehensive, demand-led approach for skills development in the manufacturing and engineering sectors, based on increased provider collaboration and alignment. Undertaking a review of best practice relating to employment and skills. This will be used to accelerate the take up of new and innovative ideas.
Read more about how The LEP is supporting Skills Development
Access to Finance
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), supported by the European Regional Development Fund, provides commercially focussed finance through Small Business Loans, Debt Finance, Proof of concept and Equity Finance funds. The MEIF Fund aims to transform the finance landscape for smaller businesses in the Midlands and to realise the region’s potential to achieve economic growth through enterprise.
Read more about how The LEP is supporting Access to Finance
