Birmingham has a long history of development with players influencing its growth (and decline) for centuries.
Birmingham grew throughout the Industrial Revolution as a major manufacturing centre known as 'The city of 1000 trades' with a diverse range of industries.
Specific goverment policies led to the decline of Birmingham in the 1960s and 1970s. Deliberate attempts (were successful) in slowing the city's growth and preventing new businesses from opening.
Along with the impacts of deindustrialisation, Birmingham went from having the lowest levels of unemployment in the UK, to the highest in the 1980s.
More recently, Central & Local Government have sought to reverse this decline with significant investment in the city.
However, much of the focus has been on attracting FDI to the city with redevelopment being undertaking by private companies.
This large scale rebranding of the city has succeeded in attracting substantial investment to the city with many MNCs moving offices to the city from London to take advantage of lower costs than in London.
Government - national & EU
Private business / Individuals - De Bermingham family, Matthew Boulton
TNCs - Austin, Dunlop, Toyota, Nissan
International Organisations - OPEC