Funding boost for ethnic minority-led businesses in the West Midlands

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, has announced a £250,000 funding boost for community-led business hubs to support ethnic minority businesses during an event hosted by Aston University.

The Centre for Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME), in collaboration with NatWest, launched Time to Change: A blueprint for advancing the UK’s ethnic minority, in 2022 inviting policymakers, corporations and entrepreneurs to come together to form collaborative partnerships to advance entrepreneurial activities and the UK’s diverse communities.

It highlighted ten evidence-based, actionable recommendations to drive inclusion in policy, finance, and business support, which if achieved would increase the ethnic minority business share of the UK’s GVA (gross value added) to £100bn.

The event, Time to Change: Power of Partnerships, was hosted in the Enterprise Hub at the University’s corporate headquarters by the Centre for Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) on 21 February.

The CREME team was joined by key partners to discuss how it is collaborating to implement the Time to Change report and how partners can all support this movement.

Professor Aleks Subic, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Aston University, delivered an opening speech underlining how CREME and the report have been pillars of the University and are key to the Aston 2030 strategy.

Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA, said:

"Our ethnic minority businesses already make an important contribution to our economy and with the right support they can achieve even more.

“That’s why the WMCA has already provided workshops to help small businesses owners from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds improve their skills to help their enterprises to flourish.

“So, I’m pleased that the WMCA is now contributing £250,000 towards these three community-led business support hubs, supporting the commitments outlined in the Time to Change Report.

“The West Midlands aims to lead the way in delivering the strategies set out in the report, collaborating with our partners to keep our region at the forefront of innovation and progress in the months and years to come.”