In focus: Ready to go
As I’m sure those of you who work in the centre of Birmingham will have noticed, the Conservative party conference is in town and so is the whole circus that surrounds such events.
It’s great news for the city’s economy - hotels, bars, restaurants and taxi firms in particular. Attracting such events, covered as they are by the national and international media, does wonders for Birmingham as a city. It makes it feel quite grown up somehow.
To have the facilities to stage such events is extremely important but arguably changing the perceptions of some of those delegates who haven’t spent time in Birmingham before is even more important. These are people who may come back in another capacity and bring more money into the local economy.
From a journalist’s point of view the conference puts us at the heart of national events and allows us to quiz government ministers on issues that affect us locally. In the last couple of days I’ve been able to put questions to lord chancellor Ken Clarke and planning secretary Bob Neill about matters that have a bearing locally. The plethora of fringe events has an impact on the liver and family relations but having such big hitters available locally is just too good an opportunity to miss.
Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby has been at every event I’ve been at. He’s something of a ‘Marmite’ politician - you either love him or hate him - but there’s no denying that he’s got tremendous stamina.
The city has got quite a lot to push at the moment, including the Big City Plan which was relaunched last week. The revised masterplan is largely the work of the city’s director of regeneration Waheed Nazir. Like me Nazir is a Small Heath boy and has a real love of his home town. It’s a 20-year plan and when I met him recently he stressed on several occasions that he won’t be going anywhere during its lifetime.
Personally, I think Nazir has done a cracking job in redefining a masterplan written in a different economic climate. He has offered clarity to developers and, crucially, highlighted priority areas where he thinks things can move quickly.
Of course it still needs developers to commit to going ahead with schemes, funders to fund them and occupiers to take pre-lets - a tall order at present. But all the public sector can do is to put everything in place so that when the market picks up we can get things moving quickly and Nazir and his colleagues have done this.
The council is also to be congratulated for working closely with local talent in the private sector, whether it be architect Glenn Howells who has worked up a mini masterplan for Eastside, or Argent Group’s Gary Taylor who has done some excellent work looking at how a rapid transit vehicle system to move people around an enlarged city centre stacks up against the alternatives.
It’s frustrating from a city development perspective that we are all ready to go but need conditions to improve before we see schemes moving ahead. Let’s hope that there will be a bit more certainty around after this month’s comprehensive spending review. Plans are great but cranes in the air and spades in the ground are even better.
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