Britain’s biggest local authority is facing a fresh crisis after the cost of its flagship redevelopment project spiralled by £100m and it was forced to hand over control of transforming Birmingham city centre.
The government is seeking urgent assurances over the £bn regeneration plan for the second city amid warnings of mismanagement, after the centrepiece Paradise Birmingham project ran out of cash in its first phase.
An investigation by The Municipal Journal has found that responsibility for redeveloping the city centre has been handed to a local enterprise partnership, while the cost of Paradise Birmingham, billed as “the most important city centre development in the UK outside London”, has increased from £88m to £188m.
