This week, our Development Manager Bec was invited to a closed roundtable discussion at the West Midlands Combined Authority headquarters. Not your typical Tuesday, then. She joined senior figures from the Greater Birmingham, Black Country, and Coventry and Warwickshire Chambers of Commerce to discuss the West Midlands Futures Green Paper and shape the Local Growth Plan that will influence how investment and opportunity flow across our region for years to come.
Bec wasn’t there to nod along politely. She was there to champion the voices that don’t get heard enough at these tables. Small businesses. Creative industries. Young people. The Black Country community. So she spoke up, and she didn’t hold back.
First up: careers education in schools, especially in deprived areas, is failing our kids. They need to see what’s actually possible beyond the narrow options presented to them. How are young people supposed to dream about careers in design, tech, or creative industries if nobody’s showing them these paths exist? Second: there are fewer higher education opportunities in creative industries now than there were twenty years ago, despite the creative sector being one of the UK’s fastest growing. That makes absolutely no sense. We’re particularly concerned about the University of Wolverhampton’s plans to demolish the iconic School of Art and Design. As a Black Country design business, we believe preserving these creative spaces and educational pathways is vital for nurturing the talent our region desperately needs.
Bec also raised the alarm about how difficult it is for small, often family run businesses to access the support that’s supposedly available to them. It’s not about launching more schemes with fancy names. It’s about better communication, actual visibility, and proper follow up. And she didn’t shy away from naming Wolverhampton’s steadily declining night-time economy. This isn’t just a hospitality issue. It affects safety, city pride, footfall, and the sustainability of every local business that relies on people actually being in the city centre.
These aren’t easy topics to raise in a room full of senior figures discussing the West Midlands growth plan. But they’re the conversations that need to happen if we’re serious about creating genuine opportunity across the region. We’re incredibly proud to have had a seat at that table, and prouder still that Bec used it to advocate for the creative, resilient, hardworking businesses and communities we serve every day.
Regional growth plans can feel abstract when you’re running a small business in Brierley Hill. But the decisions made in those rooms matter. They shape funding, infrastructure, education, and opportunity. Having someone there who actually understands what Black Country businesses face, who can speak to the reality on the ground, that’s how you make sure these plans don’t just sound good on paper. They actually work for real people doing real work in real communities. That’s the kind of advocacy our region deserves.
