{"id":68686,"date":"2016-03-17T11:21:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T11:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=0196d7d59c912613a42edf0f2ca05d68"},"modified":"2016-03-17T11:21:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T11:21:00","slug":"press-release-full-steam-ahead-for-midlands-engine-as-business-secretary-confirms-budget-support-to-drive-growth-for-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=68686","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Full steam ahead for Midlands Engine, as Business Secretary confirms Budget support to drive growth for the region"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<ul>\n<li>Midlands Engine Investment Fund of over \u00a3250 million to invest in smaller businesses in the Midlands<\/li>\n<li>government invests \u00a314 million in STEAMhouse to convert former tea factory into creative innovation centre<\/li>\n<li>this Budget drives forward the government\u2019s vision for the Midlands Engine, including \u00a316 million research and development (R&amp;D) to support East Midlands aerospace firms and placing Midlands Connect on statutory footing by 2018<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Business Secretary Sajid Javid will today visit Birmingham City University and a former Typhoo tea factory in Birmingham, which will be renovated into a creative innovation centre.<\/p>\n<p>The government will invest \u00a314 million in STEAMhouse in Digbeth to bring together arts and culture with science, technology, engineering and maths, and drive innovation within the former factory walls.<\/p>\n<p>A Midlands Engine Investment Fund of over \u00a3250 million, run by the British Business Bank to invest in smaller businesses in the Midlands, has also been agreed with the government and Local Enterprise Partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>Business Secretary Sajid Javid said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Driving growth in the Midlands is a key part of the government\u2019s devolution revolution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">There are almost 96,000 more businesses now than in 2010, the equivalent to 52 opening every day. The new \u00a3250 million Midlands Engine Investment Fund will go further by backing even more growing businesses and creating thousands of new jobs throughout the region.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This week\u2019s Budget drives forward the government\u2019s vision for the Midlands Engine, and commits to supporting the development of Midlands Connect\u2019s long-term transport strategy and the region\u2019s traditional strengths in manufacturing and engineering.<\/p>\n<p>Aerospace firms in the East Midlands will also benefit from \u00a316 million in research and development (<abbr title=\"research and development\">R&amp;D<\/abbr>) funding, matched by industry. This includes \u00a37 million to help Rolls-Royce develop new high-temperature alloys in Derby.<\/p>\n<p>The Midlands will also receive over \u00a315 million funding to support <abbr title=\"research and development\">R&amp;D<\/abbr> into lowering vehicle emissions. <\/p>\n<h3 id=\"notes-to-editors\">Notes to Editors<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>More information on the Budget announcements for the Midlands Engine are available in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/budget-2016-documents\/budget-2016\">Budget 2016<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The new \u00a3250 million Midlands Engine Investment Fund, a collaboration between British Business Bank and the region\u2019s Local Enterprise Partnerships, will contribute to efforts to rebalance the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr> economy across the regions by focusing on the Midlands\u2019 460,000 smaller businesses.<\/li>\n<li>Specifically for the Midlands Engine, the Chancellor announced the government has agreed:\n<ul>\n<li>a new Mayoral Devolution Deal worth \u00a3450 million over 30 years devolution deal for Greater Lincolnshire<\/li>\n<li>that Midlands Connect will be put on a statutory footing by the end of 2018 to create a single transport body for the Midlands Engine following the \u00a35 million investment last year<\/li>\n<li>a raft of transport investments including \u00a311 million to repair 214,000 potholes across the region and \u00a31.4 million to expand car parking facilities at Market Harborough rail station<\/li>\n<li>new Enterprise Zones at Brierley Hill, in Dudley, and Loughborough and Leicester, to attract jobs, private investment and growth in businesses<\/li>\n<li>\u00a316 million, matched by industry, to support aerospace firms in the East Midlands which includes \u00a37 million to help Rolls Royce develop new machinery in Derby<\/li>\n<li>\u00a314 million in STEAMhouse, a creative innovation centre in Digbeth, Birmingham, bringing together arts and culture with science, technology, engineering<\/li>\n<li>\u00a31 million for transforming Coventry\u2019s historic Drapers\u2019 Hall theatre into a multi-purpose centre for the region\u2019s musicians, including a recording studios and music library<\/li>\n<li>\u00a31.5 million from banking fines for the Royal British Legion, to establish a memorial to <abbr title=\"Royal Air Force\">RAF<\/abbr> Bomber Command in Lincolnshire<\/li>\n<li>\u00a3700,000 from banking fines for Birmingham Children\u2019s Eye Hospital, to help transform the eye department and help create the first centre for children with rare diseases and undiagnosed medical conditions<\/li>\n<li>\u00a3200,000 for We\u2019ll Meet Again, to establish a permanent museum in Lincolnshire to house one of the largest WW2 memorabilia collections in the <abbr title=\"United Kingdom\">UK<\/abbr>\n<\/li>\n<li>that 239 museums across the Midlands will be eligible to claim a new corporation tax relief for museums and galleries from 1 April 2017<\/li>\n<li>\u00a32 million to develop a regeneration master-plan for Birmingham\u2019s Snow Hill district. This will help to maximise the potential of Snow Hill Station and the surrounding Colmore Business District. The government will also support Greater Birmingham and Solihull <abbr title=\"Local Enterprise Partnership\">LEP<\/abbr> to develop a proposal for a new Knowledge Quarter in the area around the Curzon Street HS2 station<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Midlands Engine Investment Fund of over \u00a3250 million to invest in smaller businesses in the Midlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68691,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68686\/revisions\/68691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}