The newly-elected mayor of the West Midlands said the plans had the backing of Steven Knight.

The mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker, has called for a new filming unit at the West Midlands Combined Authority.

As reported by BBC News, Parker stressed that the area would benefit from a dedicated film office, saying: “This region lacks a production office or unit that can help not just directors and others that want to invest in the industry here, but understand this region, find locations, and secure road closures.”

Parker, who was elected Labour mayor in May, hoped the new office could be operational by the end of the year, and said it had the backing of Steven Knight, whose much-anticipated Peaky Blinders film is due to start shooting “in the next ten days”.

The feature will be based at Knight’s Digbeth Loc. Studios, as well as utilising various locations across the West Midlands, including the Black Country Museum. It will star Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Ferguson and Barry Keoghan.

Knight, who joined Parker as the mayor laid out plans for boosting the region, also said he hoped to create up to 760 new jobs in the film industry in the city.

The writer added: “We’re now at the stage where we have made incredible progress to take a beautiful place like this – the beautiful Victorian architecture, the warehouses that are here, the canal system – and do with it something no other industry can do with it.

“What we want to do is plant a new industry here and not plant it like a spaceship and put barbed wire around it. We want this to be part of the community.”