It has a dearth of office space and an oversupply of icons, but even with all the noise about HS2, Birmingham’s got a PR problem, so say panellists at the EG Midlands Question Time
How can Birmingham’s reputation be improved?
MB We’re doing well getting our message out to the parts of the world that matter, except the local part. The greater Birmingham area has the biggest cluster of creative digitals, med-techs and biofarms in the UK, but we don’t push these things enough.
PB Everybody who’s been responsible for the marketing of Birmingham over the past 30 years has failed. Every time we bid for Cultural City or for a stadium, we don’t come second, we come third or fourth. We need one well-resourced body with one board, one message, one agenda, not Marketing Birmingham, Locate Birmingham, the Chamber, Forward etc. These groups accept we should have one message, but they won’t give up their little kingdoms.
Do we risk losing HS2 due to opposition in the district and county councils in the South?
PB HS2 is a lifeline to the area and a key component of the city’s future. But if we’re not careful, the NIMBYs will stall it, so the city council and the Chamber of Commerce and others have to tell everybody why this has got to happen.
JB There’s an awful lot in it for our colleagues in Coventry, Stoke and elsewhere, and now we’ve got others in the North to realise the benefits. However, if we don’t keep going on about benefits, benefits, benefits, then it could get knocked out of court.
BA We need to be working with HS2 and not be scared of challenging them to get it right. There are issues where the rail line comes within the city and, frankly, HS2 is not listening. That concerns me.
How do we stimulate commercial office growth?
BA We’ve got to draw new investment by way of occupiers. The investors will come, the developers are here and so it’s down to occupiers. Grade A schemes will be driven by prelets. But there’s growing interest in refurbs because they’re quick to market. These will take the strain in the short term.
PB Rates are a real problem. You can’t afford to buy a scheme even if you’ve got the cash because the rates are set against historic rent levels and are too high. I’d rather have a secondary building in West Bromwich than in Birmingham city centre. My rents in Birmingham have gone from £30-£35 down to £20. In West Brom they’ve only ever been £10 and £12 and there there’s been a steady occupier market. In Birmingham there’s none. Buildings are empty. We’ve got to get our image right.
What value do you place on enterprise zones?
JB If we get the enterprise zone opportunity aligned to the long-term story of Birmingham, then businesses will invest. They can see it’s not really a tax break – saving £250,000 over five years on your rates is not a game-changer – but it’s the certainty of direction that will underpin it.
BA I have to congratulate Birmingham and the LEP for taking the risk on raising cash against future revenue and circulating it. This is essentially the Treasury trialling tax increment financing, which parliament has only just passed.
MB Ours is the biggest EZ. We’re going to gather about £875m and borrow against it. We’ve already borrowed the first £130m and it’s leading to projects.
How can we get more consistency into the planning system and speed up the process?
MB What the development community – and let’s be honest, they don’t recognise any boundaries or lines on maps – get really frustrated at is that you can go from one side of the road to another and get totally different responses. There’s a challenge for all of us in local government to be more consistent and in the LEP we are trying to harmonise our approach.
How do we get more young people to contribute to our economy?
JB Promote vocational choice. We have a huge skills gap and many of our residents could be skilled up fairly quickly to fill it.
PB Say yes when someone asks to do work experience. They’re a bit of a pain in the arse, but they can then go on to influence another five or six people and it doesn’t cost us anything.
What’s the next major development you want to see for Birmingham?
BA A dull but quality development that delivers results. We don’t need icons. We need another Brindley Place.
JB Something that extends the dwell time in Birmingham. When I go to London, if I have a few hours to kill I go to the Tate Modern, so it would be something like that.
PB Something around tourism, research or education. These things will have a lasting effect.
MB The big thing for me is about the quality of public spaces, so when the library is built, next you will see Centenary Square get redone into the type of piazza you’d expect to see in a popular European city.
