More jobs, more shops, new New Street and the rugby – let the good times roll
Greater Birmingham continues to lead the way in job creation, figures out today have confirmed.
The number of private sector jobs in the area covered by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership grew by six per cent last year, according to the Office of National Statistics.
The rate of growth was higher than any other major UK city LEP area apart from the west of England and well above the national growth rate of 4.3 per cent and London’s growth rate of 4.0 per cent.
It means that GBSLEP is almost three-quarters of the way to achieving its target of 119,000 new private sector jobs by 2020 – five years ahead of expectations.
The report containing data for 2014 is based on the Business Register Employment Survey (BRES) for 2014 and shows that 40,800 private sector jobs were created during the period. It brings total private sector jobs growth in the area to 85,200 against the LEP’s target of achieving 119,000 by 2020.
The sectors contributing most to private sector jobs growth were construction, retail, legal & accounting, warehousing and digital and creative.
Andy Street, chairman of the GBSLEP, said:
These latest figures are extremely encouraging for our region, in particular for our private sector partners and underline the hard work and commitment that has gone into achieving 72% of our target for new job creation, five years ahead of time.
A number of key successes have contributed to this positive result, including the fact that Birmingham produced the highest number of start-ups outside London in 2014. Additionally, the LEP area is also the top performing English region in terms of attracting inward investment with direct foreign investments.
I am confident that we can continue to build on this performance on the back of other key announcements such as the creation of 1,500 jobs at the HS2 construction headquarters in the city centre, and investments from companies like HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Extraenergy and Hydraforce which are bringing new jobs to the area.
The economic landscape for the GBSLEP region is looking extremely positive for growth and job creation over the next few years.
The figures are the latest evidence highlighting the ‘booming Birmingham’ phenomenon.
The GBSLEP area has attracted record levels of foreign investment, is the only UK region to run a trade surplus with China and is experiencing a rapid influx of young professionals relocating from London and the south east.
The upbeat economic news comes at a time of significant regeneration in Birmingham city centre, with the refurbished New Street station and Grand Central shopping centre with a John Lewis store opening last week.
It’s estimated that Birmingham’s ‘super weekend’ taking in Rugby World Cup matches at Villa Park and the first full trading days at Grand Central, as well as the Birmingham Weekender arts festival, generated £56 million of spending power by visitors.
More than 500,000 visitors came to the city over the two days and hotels were at 90 per cent occupancy.
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