Cadent is proud to be a founder member of West Midlands Metro Mayor Andy Street’s new
Regional Business Council, helping shape the region’s future.
The remit of the Council – which was formally launched last month – is to help shape an identity for the West Midlands and to help articulate a vision for its economic recovery following Covid-19. It will also advise on how the region can level-up.
Invited members represent a variety of businesses and sectors across the region, from utility companies such as Cadent and Severn Trent, to Jaguar Land Rover and Lloyds Banking Group, as well as football clubs Aston Villa and Coventry City, among others.
The Council also has a number of workstreams as part of the group, with Cadent being particularly involved in the one around decarbonisation - making the case for hydrogen’s role in the future of the West Midlands.
Andy Street is no stranger to Cadent and its key role in the region. He
held a Q&A last year with Cadent colleagues about his plans for the area and is regularly briefed and supportive of our company’s net zero projects, including
our 10-point plan for hydrogen.
Kate Grant, Network Director, West Midlands, Cadent, said: “The West Midlands is central to Britain for more reasons than just geography. Steeped in industrial history, home to world-leading innovation and ready to play a key part in delivering a net zero energy future. The business community here will provide every support and counsel for the region to achieve its ambitions.”
Cadent in the West Midlands
Cadent operates four of the UK’s eight gas distribution networks: North West, West Midlands, Eastern and North London. Its West Midlands network covers a wide area from North Staffordshire to Herefordshire, reaching the M1 in the East and the Welsh borders on the West.
Hundreds of engineers and support teams ensure 24/7, year-round management of an underground piped gas distribution network which, if placed end to end, stretches to more than 15,000 miles. That’s almost 4.5 times the distance from West Midlands to New York.
Cadent also provides the region’s gas emergency service, with operatives ready to respond quickly, day and night, to reported gas escapes or carbon monoxide incidents, or to support the blue-light emergency services dealing with incidents where gas is present (e.g. house fires).
Over the next five years, Cadent will invest £288million to upgrade older gas mains in the West Midlands’ network. These pipes safely, reliably and out-of-sight (underground) distribute gas that keeps people warm in their homes. Four in every five households in West Midlands have gas central heating.
This West Midlands Network is playing a huge role in helping to switch the gas grid away from fossil fuels, with Cadent, Keele University and other partners recently completing a UK-first trial of blending hydrogen into the existing gas pipe network. Using hydrogen in this blended way is a key step to converting the UK-wide system – essential to achieving net zero carbon emissions.