The decision this week by Birmingham Airport to proceed at last with its £65 million runway extension represents an important pivotal moment for the West Midlands economy.

It is clear that this much debated and long awaited scheme has developed into far more than solely delivering a longer runway – as important as that is – and must now be seen in the context of the future of the M42 Corridor as a business destination and the emergence of the Birmingham-Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership as a powerful strategic body.

It is necessary to re-align the A45 in order to accommodate the runway, but in doing so the LEP has seized an opportunity to improve the road and make it easier to access Birmingham from the M42.

Clearly, land bordering the motorway, the M6 Toll, the A45, the airport and the NEC will become of even more interest to inward investors than was hitherto the case – with values buoyed by the lure of non-stop flights to China, India and the west coast of America.

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jerry Blackett rightly sees the improved A45 and airport as a catalyst driving forward economic growth and predicts that the M42 Corridor could generate as many as 10,000 new jobs over the next few years.

Outline plans are already emerging from the LEP to declare parts of the corridor an ‘Enterprise Zone’, offering tax breaks to incoming businesses and watering down planning restrictions that currently make development more difficult to achieve.

In Birmingham itself, meanwhile, the LEP wants to declare the entire city centre an Enterprise Zone, and is forecasting a total income of £700 million from business rates contributions. This money can be used to repay loans amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds which will deliver a welcome kick start in regenerating huge swathes of the city centre.