Mayor vows ambitious pitch for ‘chronically undersold’ East Midlands

Claire Ward says the East Midlands has “all the right ingredients” for success, as she gets ready to lead the region’s delegation to UKREiiF 2026 later this month.

Around 16,000 attendees from the industry will descend on the Royal Armouries Museum and New Dock in Leeds for the landmark property conference from 19 May, including representatives from around 3,500 of the globe’s highest profile investment organisations.

Speaking to a packed audience containing business leaders, investors and civic representatives from across the region, Ward told attendees the region would head to Yorkshire with a message of readiness and ambition, as the delegation looked to highlight the potential of the East Midlands to investors at the summit.

“UKREiiF is a unique event for us because it brings together the whole package, taking it to the people who we know will want to join us on this journey as we grow our region and invest in it,” she said.

“Two great cities, Nottingham and Derby, set in the context of rural and market town economies, the Peak District, our nations finest national park…. and excellent connections to the country and the world to facilitate strong supply chains, trade and investment.

“World-class universities, global firms like Rolls-Royce and Toyota and Alstrom, and of course the UK’s National Fusion Energy Centre on its way at West Burton are just some of those assets.”

More than a hundred delegates gathered at the Museum of Makers in Derby for the launch of the region’s UKREiiF pitch. Credit: Place Midlands

The opening session at the East Midlands Pavilion will bring together the Mayor and the four leaders of EMCCA’s constituent authorities – Derby City Council leader Cllr Nadine Peatfield, Derbyshire County Council leader Cllr Alan Graves, Nottingham City Council leader Cllr Neghat Khan, and Nottinghamshire County Council leader Cllr Mick Barton.

The mayor will be wooing investors with her ten-year growth plan, launched last year and intended to add £13bn to the region’s economy as well as building more than 100,000 homes, with the East Midlands also backed with £107m of funding by chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in last year’s budget.

Ward also used the launch to highlight the region’s role in the growing Midlands defence sector, with Derby one of several military-manufacturing clusters in the region alongside others such as Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Telford.

“People understand the history and the heritage of this region. But we have so much more to offer, and we are completely undersold as a region,” she added.

“We have resources, of course, never enough. That’s part of my job, keep banging on the door for the chancellor and the government to give us some more, but we’ve had more in this region in the last couple of years than we’ve ever had before. And most importantly, because we have a combined authority, we have the power to decide how we spend that money on the priorities, that are right for us in this region. And so we are developing plans cross-party, cross region, and cross-sector to deploy those resources.

“This is the opportunity to grow our region, and to make the most of this region. Not because I want it, not because councillors and authorities want it, but because the people who live and work in this region deserve it, Together, team East Midlands will make this region the best place to live, to work, and to learn.”

The full East Midlands programme can be viewed on the combined authority website.