You can imagine the future, but sometimes it takes a while to grasp it. The worst global crisis in 60 years would, said many, surely lead to less financial engineering and brighter prospects for real engineering. Where better to exploit the opportunity than the West Midlands, cradle of the Industrial Revolution?
For the past year that hope has been postponed as manufacturing became the largely innocent victim of a recession fashioned in financial markets. The automotive sector, of which the region has the highest concentration in the UK, was particularly hit. Unemployment in the West Midlands rose above 10 per cent, the highest in the country.
