{"id":429871,"date":"2026-02-17T05:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429871\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T05:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:18:15","slug":"west-midlands-mayor-launches-trade-mission-to-india-to-capitalise-on-uk-india-fta-mobility-chapters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429871\/","title":{"rendered":"West Midlands mayor launches trade mission to India to capitalise on UK\u2013India FTA mobility chapters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Richard Parker, the newly-elected mayor of England\u2019s West Midlands, will lead a 40-strong public\u2013private delegation to Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru from 23\u201327 February 2026. The visit, billed as a \u2018mission to seize the moment\u2019, is the first UK regional foray since the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed last July and is explicitly designed to exploit the accord\u2019s labour-mobility provisions.<\/p>\n

Under Chapter 11 of the FTA, short-term business visitors, intra-corporate transferees and independent professionals from either side can obtain 90-day multiple-entry visas with simplified documentation. Regional universities, energy firm E.ON, and several advanced-manufacturing SMEs will accompany the mayor to court Indian talent and investment using those rules. Aston University plans to announce a twinned master\u2019s in battery innovation that will allow Indian students to split study between Birmingham and Pune and move directly into two-year graduate roles under the UK\u2019s new \u2018Skilled Worker Premium\u2019 for FTA-partner nationals.<\/p>\n

For organisations eager to tap these streamlined visa pathways, VisaHQ\u2019s UK portal (https:\/\/www.visahq.com\/united-kingdom\/<\/a>) can take the administrative sting out of the process. The service handles everything from document validation to embassy submission and offers a dashboard for HR teams to track multiple applications in real time\u2014ideal for coordinating the kind of rapid deployments envisaged by the West Midlands delegation.<\/p>\n

\"West<\/p>\n

The mission also aims to cement reciprocal social-security relief agreed last week, which will exempt staff on assignments of up to five years from paying into both countries\u2019 state pension schemes. For multinationals, the combined effect could trim assignment costs by 12-15 per cent, according to Deloitte Mobility.<\/p>\n

Critically, Birmingham Airport is lobbying Air India to relaunch a non-stop service to Bengaluru to support the anticipated traffic. If approved, it would be the first direct connection between the UK\u2019s second-largest regional economy and India\u2019s tech hub, slashing journey times for project teams.<\/p>\n

HR and mobility leaders should monitor the secondary regulations that both governments must publish before the mobility chapter takes effect\u2014expected on 1 April 2026. Companies eyeing quick transfers should start drafting compliant assignment contracts now, including health-insurance and payroll clauses that match the new social-security exemption windows.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Parker, the newly-elected mayor of England\u2019s West Midlands, will lead a 40-strong public\u2013private delegation to Ahmedabad, Mumbai…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-429871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}