Valerie attends the launch of the West Midlands Growth Plan

The Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority launched the West Midlands Growth Project on 15 September 2025 at the House of Commons. 

The vision is to increase residents’ living standards across all parts of the West Midlands. This means bringing more people into good quality jobs, increasing the productivity of the region’s economy and reducing poverty and deprivation, while making further progress on our journey to net zero. 

The Growth Plan is specific in setting out four big changes that need to happen: to achieve in ten years and the actions WMCA will start to take over the coming three years:

• Empowering the people of the West Midlands to get on in life;
• Enabling the businesses of the West Midlands to become more productive and provide good jobs;
• Making the places of the West Midlands more prosperous and resilient; and
• Telling the West Midlands’ story and strengthening its partnerships.

I am pictured with the Mayor Richard Parker, Cllr Adrian Andrew and Jat Sharma, Walsall College.