News - Midlands
Blue sky thinking
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most significant summits that Birmingham ever hosted, its so-called Highbury initiative.
Its catalyst had been the headlong decline of the city following the recession of the late 1970s and the realisation that the city's inner ring road - its famous concrete collar - was a major barrier to investment. What could the city do to get itself off its knees?
The summit, which invited delegates from across the globe, did indeed result in the breaking down of many areas of the ring road to open up new city quarters, while it also indirectly paved the way for the creation of landmark schemes such as the International Convention Centre and Brindleyplace.
Twenty years on and all agree that Birmingham needs a Highbury take-two. At first glance this might seem strange. The city is not comparable with 20 years ago. It has confidence, it has a young population, it can boast a string of landmark developments. Its unemployment is only fractionally higher than the national average (despite effects such as the Rover closure). It even recently came ahead of Manchester as one of the top 20 cities in the world in which to do business.
But in a fast-changing world where every city is under pressure to demonstrate distinctive qualities, to strengthen its competitive position, there is an overwhelming sense from city leaders that landmark schemes and useful plaudits are not enough. There also remain tough questions in areas such as the city's leadership, the success of its marketing, and how the wider Birmingham city region can develop for the good of all.
Sir Michael Lyons, the eminent government adviser and former chief executive of the city council, speaks for many when he says that other cities have caught up with Birmingham. Speaking at a lecture hosted by professional services lobbying group Birmingham Forward earlier this month, he said: "We now need a more ambitious and distinctive vision for the future that reflects the world of today and tomorrow rather than the world of yesterday."
Sir Digby Jones, former head of the CBI and prominent cheerleader for Birmingham, even recently compared Birmingham to the Titanic, in danger of being overhauled by its main UK rivals as it loses momentum in economic and social development.
Ironically, it is also almost ten years since Birmingham played host to another key summit, when it entertained Bill Clinton et al at a G8 summit. "In 1998 we celebrated G8 confident that our convention centre, our fine new square and the investment these had attracted made us distinctive, put us one step ahead. That is no longer so," says Lyons.
Lyons argues that the city needs a stronger, more secure economic foundation for the future. "Business tourism and financial services are important but not enough. We face a growing challenge from London under confident leadership. We need to think deeply about what we can draw from our history and our current strengths to provide us with a distinctive economic mission for the future."
Again, Lyons isn't alone in stressing that Birmingham needs to rethink its relationship with London. He says the city needs to "work vigorously" to kill off suggestions that Birmingham is in any way hostile to the growing strength or success of the capital. "A confident Birmingham has nothing to gain from knockabout, false competition, which too often in the past has ended with us being caricatured as the dim cousin," he told the lecture. "London is under pressure in terms of housing, transportation and the availability of labour. Birmingham is potentially little more than an hour away."
Ronnie Bowker, managing partner of accountant Ernst & Young's Birmingham office, agrees that the relationship with London needs to be looked at. "The challenge Birmingham will always have is its proximity to London and we need to look at that relationship. Manchester has the benefit of being that much further away so it can become easier to justify having a fully fledged business operation there outside London."
Bowker adds that getting the marketing message through is still of paramount importance. "A lot of people still have a dated view of Birmingham. People are always surprised by what they then see here," he says.
Why does the marketing message still fail to get through? It's not as if money or talent is in short supply. Marketing Birmingham's subsidy from the city council is to be doubled to £34m in 2008/09 and the group is headed by respected marketing guru Neil Rami. Many say there are simply too many organisations in the city dealing with the issue and not enough coherence.
Mary Daunt, a leading property lawyer in the city with Browne Jacobson, says: "Everyone knows what the issues are
in Birmingham such as transport and marketing, yet there still seems to be
a lack of joined up thinking. However, if you look around at the calibre of people who are fighting our corner in terms of lobbying we are not short of quality people. There is a mismatch there."
The views are echoed from a property angle by Malcolm Gloster, head of agent GVA Grimley, the largest in the city. "We need the right offer for investors and, frankly, the database of what we have on offer to investors is not good enough somehow. That needs to change."
Grumbles also remain in private among business leaders about the ruling Tory/Liberal coalition and whether the council is delivering. As Bowker diplomatically puts it: "The administration has not convinced everyone yet. A coalition is sometimes as much about keeping your coalition partners happy. There is still work to be done for the administration to gain the total confidence of the business community in Birmingham."
So is there a Highbury part two around the corner? Well, in many ways yes, designed specifically to provide more clarity and coherence for investors and lay out a framework for the city's future development. As Insider went to press the city was about to host a major urban summit to pick up on these themes, while it has also commissioned leading regional planning adviser Michael Parkinson to draw up a framework for the city's future.
Adds Gloster: "We have not got a strong city vision yet and speaking for the development community we wait to see what Parkinson will deliver. It is now all about taking this city to the next stage. There has been a lot of tinkering at the edges, but what we now need is a determined focus on how we are going to change things for the better."
A key strand of the report is sure to look at how Birmingham can exploit the drive towards more decentralisation and devolution in the UK.
However, some felt that promises over transport, planning and housing powers being handed down to town halls proved empty when a recent white paper on local government was published. The paper was also ambiguous about the vexed question of the future of city regions and the powers they may or may not have.
Opinion is sharply divided over the merits of concentrating all efforts right now on promoting Birmingham as head of a West Midlands city region. Much work has been done in this area and the local authorities are now working closer together in providing a united front to investors. Bowker for one believes it is important that the city region dream is moved forward from a business point of view.
But others are not so signed up. Jones recently described the proposed title for the city region of "Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country" as a "cowardly, political fudge". He said without a decent name the idea of a city region was doomed to fail.
Lyons too is sceptical: "I can see the value of further strengthening the relationships between councils and communities in this conurbation, but this must not be at the cost of recognising that the Birmingham city region extends out to the surrounding shire areas and that our relationships with Warwickshire and Worcestershire may be more important for our future economic role than our relationship with the Black Country."
However, by working closer together the different authorities have certainly made headway in some areas, most notably in transport where a united campaign for investment in a redeveloped New Street station (see page 38) has borne fruit at long last.
Other successes finally feeding through in the city include the development of Eastside, another of the cornerstones of Highbury. As our Real Deals column highlights in this issue (page 85) the city council, under the leadership of planning head Clive Dutton, looks to have finally begun to turn the ambitious but chaotic project into something deliverable. Indeed, the city has had a run of good news with problematic projects. For instance the re-opening of the Fort Dunlop tyre factory as a major new office and retail destination (see right) speaks volumes for investor confidence in the city region. For so long just a wall for advertising hoardings, the dream is now a reality.
The only question is will motorists have got the message to be sufficiently tempted to turn off the motorway?
Its catalyst had been the headlong decline of the city following the recession of the late 1970s and the realisation that the city's inner ring road - its famous concrete collar - was a major barrier to investment. What could the city do to get itself off its knees?
The summit, which invited delegates from across the globe, did indeed result in the breaking down of many areas of the ring road to open up new city quarters, while it also indirectly paved the way for the creation of landmark schemes such as the International Convention Centre and Brindleyplace.
Twenty years on and all agree that Birmingham needs a Highbury take-two. At first glance this might seem strange. The city is not comparable with 20 years ago. It has confidence, it has a young population, it can boast a string of landmark developments. Its unemployment is only fractionally higher than the national average (despite effects such as the Rover closure). It even recently came ahead of Manchester as one of the top 20 cities in the world in which to do business.
But in a fast-changing world where every city is under pressure to demonstrate distinctive qualities, to strengthen its competitive position, there is an overwhelming sense from city leaders that landmark schemes and useful plaudits are not enough. There also remain tough questions in areas such as the city's leadership, the success of its marketing, and how the wider Birmingham city region can develop for the good of all.
Sir Michael Lyons, the eminent government adviser and former chief executive of the city council, speaks for many when he says that other cities have caught up with Birmingham. Speaking at a lecture hosted by professional services lobbying group Birmingham Forward earlier this month, he said: "We now need a more ambitious and distinctive vision for the future that reflects the world of today and tomorrow rather than the world of yesterday."
Sir Digby Jones, former head of the CBI and prominent cheerleader for Birmingham, even recently compared Birmingham to the Titanic, in danger of being overhauled by its main UK rivals as it loses momentum in economic and social development.
Ironically, it is also almost ten years since Birmingham played host to another key summit, when it entertained Bill Clinton et al at a G8 summit. "In 1998 we celebrated G8 confident that our convention centre, our fine new square and the investment these had attracted made us distinctive, put us one step ahead. That is no longer so," says Lyons.
Lyons argues that the city needs a stronger, more secure economic foundation for the future. "Business tourism and financial services are important but not enough. We face a growing challenge from London under confident leadership. We need to think deeply about what we can draw from our history and our current strengths to provide us with a distinctive economic mission for the future."
Again, Lyons isn't alone in stressing that Birmingham needs to rethink its relationship with London. He says the city needs to "work vigorously" to kill off suggestions that Birmingham is in any way hostile to the growing strength or success of the capital. "A confident Birmingham has nothing to gain from knockabout, false competition, which too often in the past has ended with us being caricatured as the dim cousin," he told the lecture. "London is under pressure in terms of housing, transportation and the availability of labour. Birmingham is potentially little more than an hour away."
Ronnie Bowker, managing partner of accountant Ernst & Young's Birmingham office, agrees that the relationship with London needs to be looked at. "The challenge Birmingham will always have is its proximity to London and we need to look at that relationship. Manchester has the benefit of being that much further away so it can become easier to justify having a fully fledged business operation there outside London."
Bowker adds that getting the marketing message through is still of paramount importance. "A lot of people still have a dated view of Birmingham. People are always surprised by what they then see here," he says.
Why does the marketing message still fail to get through? It's not as if money or talent is in short supply. Marketing Birmingham's subsidy from the city council is to be doubled to £34m in 2008/09 and the group is headed by respected marketing guru Neil Rami. Many say there are simply too many organisations in the city dealing with the issue and not enough coherence.
Mary Daunt, a leading property lawyer in the city with Browne Jacobson, says: "Everyone knows what the issues are
in Birmingham such as transport and marketing, yet there still seems to be
a lack of joined up thinking. However, if you look around at the calibre of people who are fighting our corner in terms of lobbying we are not short of quality people. There is a mismatch there."
The views are echoed from a property angle by Malcolm Gloster, head of agent GVA Grimley, the largest in the city. "We need the right offer for investors and, frankly, the database of what we have on offer to investors is not good enough somehow. That needs to change."
Grumbles also remain in private among business leaders about the ruling Tory/Liberal coalition and whether the council is delivering. As Bowker diplomatically puts it: "The administration has not convinced everyone yet. A coalition is sometimes as much about keeping your coalition partners happy. There is still work to be done for the administration to gain the total confidence of the business community in Birmingham."
So is there a Highbury part two around the corner? Well, in many ways yes, designed specifically to provide more clarity and coherence for investors and lay out a framework for the city's future development. As Insider went to press the city was about to host a major urban summit to pick up on these themes, while it has also commissioned leading regional planning adviser Michael Parkinson to draw up a framework for the city's future.
Adds Gloster: "We have not got a strong city vision yet and speaking for the development community we wait to see what Parkinson will deliver. It is now all about taking this city to the next stage. There has been a lot of tinkering at the edges, but what we now need is a determined focus on how we are going to change things for the better."
A key strand of the report is sure to look at how Birmingham can exploit the drive towards more decentralisation and devolution in the UK.
However, some felt that promises over transport, planning and housing powers being handed down to town halls proved empty when a recent white paper on local government was published. The paper was also ambiguous about the vexed question of the future of city regions and the powers they may or may not have.
Opinion is sharply divided over the merits of concentrating all efforts right now on promoting Birmingham as head of a West Midlands city region. Much work has been done in this area and the local authorities are now working closer together in providing a united front to investors. Bowker for one believes it is important that the city region dream is moved forward from a business point of view.
But others are not so signed up. Jones recently described the proposed title for the city region of "Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country" as a "cowardly, political fudge". He said without a decent name the idea of a city region was doomed to fail.
Lyons too is sceptical: "I can see the value of further strengthening the relationships between councils and communities in this conurbation, but this must not be at the cost of recognising that the Birmingham city region extends out to the surrounding shire areas and that our relationships with Warwickshire and Worcestershire may be more important for our future economic role than our relationship with the Black Country."
However, by working closer together the different authorities have certainly made headway in some areas, most notably in transport where a united campaign for investment in a redeveloped New Street station (see page 38) has borne fruit at long last.
Other successes finally feeding through in the city include the development of Eastside, another of the cornerstones of Highbury. As our Real Deals column highlights in this issue (page 85) the city council, under the leadership of planning head Clive Dutton, looks to have finally begun to turn the ambitious but chaotic project into something deliverable. Indeed, the city has had a run of good news with problematic projects. For instance the re-opening of the Fort Dunlop tyre factory as a major new office and retail destination (see right) speaks volumes for investor confidence in the city region. For so long just a wall for advertising hoardings, the dream is now a reality.
The only question is will motorists have got the message to be sufficiently tempted to turn off the motorway?