West Midlands Futures Compendium
As the West Midlands nears a decade of devolution, the WMCA is engaging stakeholders through its Futures Green Paper and Theory of Growth to shape long-term inclusive growth strategies focused on raising household incomes, boosting productivity, creating quality jobs, and meeting net zero targets.
Background
At a time when the West Midlands is approaching ten years of devolution, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is assessing challenges and opportunities faced now and in the future, and the policy levers available to make change happen. Alongside prior commissioning of research on specific themes/ questions, in April 2025 it published a West Midlands Futures Green Paper to support a conversation with stakeholders across the region about long-term strategic priorities. It has also published the West Midlands Theory of Growth which set out the inclusive growth it wants to realise – as measured by an increase in gross disposable household income in all places across the West Midlands, underpinned by higher productivity and supporting more residents into well-paid, good-quality jobs, in a way that is aligned to the region’s net zero goals.
Timescales: 29/1/25-31/1/25
The Objectives
The Objectives
The role of the City-REDI team was to help inform the WMCA’s West Midlands Futures work by reviewing regional and local strategies pertaining to the West Midlands. The team also collated and reviewed evidence on the following sub-systems:
- Polycentricity / agglomeration
- Industrial composition
- Innovation / R&D
- Business leadership and management
- Investment
- Skills
- People and communities
- Housing
- Transport
- Energy
- Economic governance and institutions
- Regional narrative/ perceptions/ vision
They were involved in discussions on the linkages between subsystems.
These discussions informed the West Midlands Futures Green Paper published by the West Midlands Combined Authority in April 2025 and the West Midlands Theory of Growth.
The Team
The Team
The team (Max 250 words long):
Anne Green
Rebecca Riley
Donald Houston
Fumi Kitagawa
Annum Rafique
Charlotte Hoole
Gerardo J. Arriaga-Garcia
Daniel Jin
Huanjia Ma
Abigail Taylor
Tom Burton
Sara Hassan
Matt Lyons
Project lead contact details: Professor Anne Green
Reports and Publications
Reports and Publications
Exploring Emerging Opportunities in the West Midlands Combined Authority Region
Authors: George Bramley, Fumi Kitagawa, Huanjia Ma, Nuo Jin, Reen Blake-Carr, Matthew Lyons, Tom Burton, Gerardo Javier Arriaga Garcia, Irshad Mulla, Delma Dwight, Lukasz Gasienica-Fronek, Emma Forde
June 2025
Authors: Anne Green, Rebecca Riley, Stuart Wells, Christine Doels, Alasdair Rae
June 2025