Birmingham City Centre Enterprise Zone
In the UK 44 Enterprise Zones (EZ) have been allocated to Local Enterprise Partnerships who then decided on where the EZ would be located.
The Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP (GBSLEP) chose Birmingham City Centre as their EZ location. The City Centre EZ is made up of 39 sites across the city, in seven clusters.
This includes those identified in the Big City Plan as having significant growth opportunities:
- Westside
- Snow Hill District
- Eastside
- Southern Gateway
- Digbeth Creative Cluster
- Birmingham Science Park Aston
- Jewellery Quarter
The EZ is focussed on the following economic sectors:
- Business and Financial Services
- ICT
- Creative Industries
- Digital Media
For more detailed information about the Enterprise Zone, see the following investment plans.
The Enterprise Zone was first established in 2011 by the GBSLEP. As part of the West Midlands Devolution Deal (2015) the Enterprise Zone was extended to cover the Curzon area, to enable the delivery of local infrastructure and to drive growth
The first Enterprise Zone Investment plan was launched in 2012 with a £128m programme of investment. In 2014 the investment plan was updated to reflect a longer term investment period up to 2022/23 and a revised £275m infrastructure programme. In 2015 the Enterprise Zone area was extended from its original 26 site to 39 covering 113ha
In 2016 the Curzon Investment plan was launched setting out £724M Programme .The Enterprise Zone investment plans are funded through the projected growth in business rates generated within the Enterprise Zone sites managed though a financial model.
The Enterprise Zone Investment Plan 2019 consolidates the 2014 City Centre and 2016 Curzon Investment plans, with a strategy that focuses on delivering a phased programme of £460m of projects in the period 2019 – 2028.
