Downtown in Business has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to deliver a bold Budget that unlocks Birmingham’s growth potential — calling on her to match the ambition of the West Midlands mayor Richard Parker’s growth plans that were unveiled in Westminster at a special Parliamentary Reception hosted by Downtown in Business earlier this year.
Frank McKenna, group chair and chief executive of Downtown in Business, said:
“Birmingham is poised for a once-in-a-generation transformation. The city has a government-backed multi-billion-pound Sports Quarter on the table, a serious ambition for a new football stadium, and a business community crying out to invest. What it needs now is a Budget that matches that ambition — not another round of political caution.”
McKenna emphasised that Birmingham and the wider region also benefit from a far more ambitious and proactive political environment under West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker.
“Richard Parker has set out the most dynamic growth plan the West Midlands has seen in years,” McKenna said.
“From boosting housebuilding and unlocking brownfield regeneration, to accelerating transport investment and championing advanced manufacturing, the Mayor has put forward a serious, business-friendly blueprint. Birmingham’s potential is huge — and Parker’s plan shows exactly how the region can turn that potential into real, long-term prosperity.”
McKenna added that the Chancellor has a “golden opportunity” to align national policy with the Mayor’s ambitions and create a powerful regional growth engine for the whole country.
McKenna warned that rising debt, sluggish national growth, and an “out-of-control surge in welfare spending” risk undermining Birmingham’s momentum, and the governments own economic growth mission.
“If the Chancellor wants to grow the economy, it means backing cities like Birmingham and its regeneration plans to succeed. She has to fix the fundamentals. That means getting on with planning reform, genuine support for enterprise, and a welfare system that doesn’t incentivise medicalising everyday stress.”
McKenna concluded:
“Birmingham has the vision, the investor interest, a transformational Sports Quarter in the pipeline and a Mayor with a serious growth plan. This is the moment for Westminster to back a region that is ready to deliver. Birmingham is ready to boom — the Chancellor must produce a budget that backs investment, backs business, and delivers growth.”
