Robert adds: “The vision for TEP Birmingham is to bring people together and turn clean innovation into growth. The site has already attracted over £100million of investment and has the potential to unlock over £1billion in long-term economic value. That positions TEP Birmingham not simply as a clean energy hub, but as a practical example of how the West Midlands can build on its industrial strengths to support green growth, jobs and innovation.”
To anyone that visits, that idea is visible in practice. The site is home to more than 20 clean energy and technology organisations, connecting start-ups and small businesses with strategic partners, including the University of Birmingham and now the NatWest Accelerator.
The Accelerator will support founders and growth businesses with targeted business support and access to capital, expert insight, commercial opportunities and networks, while strengthening NatWest’s wider regional Accelerator network across Tyseley, Birmingham and Warwick.
Robert says: “This Accelerator is an exciting evolution in our partnership with NatWest, who have long been more than just a bank to us. Having the Accelerator onsite adds an important new dimension to TEP Birmingham, ensuring that the wealth of local talent we have in the clean energy and innovation space has an even stronger support network that increases their opportunity to grow and scale.”
“This support network – cutting across public and private entities - is important because we know that innovation does not scale in isolation. Businesses need the right conditions around them: access to finance, specialist expertise, infrastructure, customers peers and partners. That’s how brilliant ideas will turn into growth across our region.”
With advanced engineering and manufacturing already contributing £22 billion a year to the West Midlands’ economy and supporting 273,000 jobs, the region is well positioned to develop, manufacture and deploy new technologies at scale.
And that regional strength is part of the case for locating the Accelerator at TEP Birmingham. Rather than placing founders in a traditional office environment, the new hub puts them inside a live industrial and innovation cluster – close to manufacturers, universities, policymakers, infrastructure providers and clean energy businesses – and all helping to turn innovation into commercial growth.
“On the surface, our story is one of business evolution: a family-owned business moving from traditional industry and infrastructure towards a future focused on clean energy business,” adds Robert. “But at its core, our journey shows how industrial heritage can become a platform for the next phase of regional growth - not by leaving the past behind, but by using the skills, assets and relationships built over generations to support new technologies and new businesses.”
“As the UK moves towards a lower-carbon economy, connected infrastructure is vital: grid connectivity and capacity, transport, skills, finance, supply chains and demand all need to align,” adds Robert. “And all of this can be found at TEP Birmingham.”
Through Growing Together, NatWest is focused on helping create the conditions and connections needed for long-term economic growth across the UK, acting not only as a financier, but as a facilitator and convenor - linking capital, customers, supply chains and technical expertise, and bringing public and private partners together around delivery.
