Birmingham is hoping the Commonwealth Games this summer will herald a “golden decade” of investment for the city.
The former home of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, next to HSBC’s headquarters in Centenary Square, will be transformed into “UK House” where visitors will be shown investment opportunities in eight sectors, including tourism, creative and digital, business services and sport.
“This does feel like Birmingham’s time,” said Ian Ward, leader of the city council. “We have all these things aligned – the Games, high-speed rail arriving – and I do think we need to make the most of this, because we will never get these opportunities again at one time and this will be a golden decade of opportunity for the city.”
Ward wants to attract more businesses and developers to open and build offices in Snowhill, the business district that is home to KPMG, Barclays and BT.
Projects that Ward is eager to see developed include a plan to create production studios in the Digbeth creative quarter so that spin-offs of Peaky Blinders, the BBC drama set in the city, can be filmed in Birmingham. Recent series have mainly been filmed in Manchester and Liverpool.
