Earlier this year, Deborah Cadman set out a long-term vision for the kind of Birmingham she wants for the city’s youngest generation. “I’m really committed to making sure that children who are born and grow up in this city feel that this is the city for them,” the chief executive of the city council told EG.
Last month, at the UKREiiF conference in Leeds, Cadman revisited that commitment in the light of the city’s new Our Future City plan, an initiative that she and colleagues hope will transform and green the city centre and beyond between now and 2040.
“If we deliver on our ambition, this will be a 20-year plan,” Cadman says. “Children born now will be living in those homes, using the public transport, walking through the inner ring road that we are going to green and pedestrianise. We are building a future for them. So it’s absolutely right that we are intentional about everything we do – and we are absolutely clear that the future we are building is the future for the children being born and growing up in this city.”
Win-win
The framework will create 35,000 homes, double the number of green spaces in the city and add 124 miles of walking and cycling routes. The council hopes its “vibrant new neighbourhoods” will double the city’s population density to be in line with other big European cities.
Cadman wants the city’s track record on regeneration to give private-sector developers the confidence to step forward and contribute.
“When we launched the framework, there was lots of conversation saying, ‘this is great, but are you going to be able to deliver?’” she says. “We are able to point to some phenomenal partnerships and joint ventures. Look at the way in which the city has transformed over the last generation in Paradise – that is first and foremost because of the joint venture and partnership we had with Argent. And if you look at our ambition for Smithfield, which is going to be one of the largest urban regeneration schemes in the country, that will be delivered through the joint venture and partnership with Lendlease.”
A transformational scheme can take years, even decades, to flourish, so Cadman wants commitment. “This isn’t one and done, this isn’t about the private sector landing, making their profit and leaving,” she says. “This is about investors and developers having a stake in the future of our place… This is about seeing it as a joint endeavour. We all win, ultimately, if we have a place that is liveable, green, sustainable, safe. It’s better for us, it’s better for our population, but it’s also better for those private sector investors that are coming to invest now and in the future.”
No room for rubbish
The framework aligns with a developing vision of Birmingham that has been taking shape since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have been thinking about how the city needs to change and develop, and we started our thinking during Covid,” says Cadman. “We could see that people were working differently, playing differently, accessing culture and leisure differently through Covid and immediately after that. We know the demand for grade-A office accommodation is shifting. We know there are significant vacant offices at the moment. So of course we have to think about that impact on the long-term provision of office space, the quality and use of that office space.”
Cadman wants “thoughtful” conversations with developers about how the city changes and what some of its vacant offices can be repurposed as. Cultural offerings are a definite possibility, but nothing is off the table, the chief executive says. Whatever it is, there’s one defining thread.
“The important thing is it’s got to be quality,” Cadman says. “Birmingham will not be the city of developing rubbish. There is no place for that in Birmingham. The people of this city deserve no less. We’re being very clear about developing vacant buildings in the right way. We’re going to take our time and be quite thoughtful about it because whatever we develop has got to last and be sustainable.”
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