A bold vision in Birmingham, where the council is hatching plans to develop up to 1m sq ft of offices in Snowhill. It’s welcome news in a market that hasn’t witnessed nearly enough in recent years.
Make no bones about it: in many people’s eyes Birmingham has been overshadowed by Manchester over the last decade and more. A combination of collective ambition, strong civic leadership, a thriving creative sector and sporting success has seen the capital of the North West pull away from the UK’s historic second city.
I was at the very enjoyable opening party for Two Snowhill back in April. It was the biggest office opening outside London this year. But more significantly, it was the first substantial office opening in Birmingham in three years.
From MediaCity to Manchester Airport, there’s a pretty sharp contrast with events in the North West.
Argent directors were out in China this week with George Osborne and London mayor Boris Johnson. They are part of a jv that includes Beijing Construction Engineering Group, which will deliver Manchester Airport Group’s £800m Airport City development.
With the chancellor himself announcing the deal in Beijing, it was a very visible celebration of UK regional ambition on a global stage.
But Birmingham is fighting back. The redevelopment of New Street – complete with John Lewis, that totem of a successful city – continues apace.
And now the council has commissioned London-based consultant engineer Alan Baxter Associates to draw up a Snowhill quarter masterplanning study. It will highlight the next wave of development opportunities in the area, and the chance to build a new 10-storey office scheme on top of the NCP multi-storey car park at Snow Hill station will add fuel to the industry’s fire (p35).
Under Sir Albert Bore, the council has momentum again. And on his watch, Big City plan is bearing fruit; Paradise Circus and Arena Central are also in view.
Snow Hill Three could be five to 10 years away – if it happens at all. But that doesn’t matter. Rome wasn’t built in a day; neither was Manchester. Birmingham won’t be either.
• Deloitte’s latest crane survey shows how rapidly the regional recovery is gathering momentum: there has been an 80% increase in new project starts in the largest UK cities outside the capital. Almost all of the increase in activity was in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Leeds – and Birmingham – were next. It’s an encouragingly diverse spread, though it’s clear, and perhaps to be expected, that the next areas to recover outside London are core cities, not regions at large.
• Housing and planning dominated this year’s London Property Summit. Nick Boles made a strong case for this being a golden age for London. And he was honest enough to admit that the housing “crisis” was its biggest threat.
It was inevitable that he would insist that the government’s supply and demand-side reforms were working, with the second phase of Help to Buy central to a wider strategy.
But he left delegates in a funk about planning.
Too slow, too expensive and too uncertain was the refrain. Hammerson chief executive David Atkins told EGTV that it wasn’t uncommon for planning and legal fees to outweigh underlying land values. On top of that, he said, “You have blockages and issues around resources in planning teams that are damaging to local economies and jobs.”
He wasn’t alone. British Land’s Chris Grigg said it was the quality of planning outside the capital that caused him real concern: “There are some atrocities going on in the system,” he thundered.
Boles gave the impression he considered housing policy was in good shape. The market will decide that in the coming months. But he shouldn’t for a second think the planning system is robust, however fresh the ink is on the National Planning Policy Framework.
Damian.Wild@estatesgazette.com
