Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s Licencing Committee has decided to award its large casino licence to casino group Genting UK. The company’s plans develop and build Resorts World at the NEC will now move to the next stage of applying for planning permission.

The £120m leisure and entertainment complex will be a key component in modernising the area around the NEC, and will be situated between the LG Arena and the Crowne Plaza hotel. The complex will include a casino, hotel, spa, banqueting and conference centre, retail units, bars, a multi-screen cinema and restaurant.

When it opens in early 2014, Resorts World will provide over 11,000 full time equivalent jobs and create an estimated value to the local economy of over £25 million per annum in one of the most significant new job creation schemes in the region for several years.

Today’s announcement is the culmination of over three years of planning by Genting and the NEC Group to ensure Resorts World offers an exciting and unique leisure and entertainment proposition to visitors to the NEC, local communities and the wider region. Following a successful planning application, construction will begin on the development in late 2011.

The announcement comes days after Genting were named as club sponsors of Aston Villa FC in a two-year deal.