East Birmingham MDC takes another step forward
Plans to create a public body to push through some of Birmingham’s largest regeneration projects took a step forward today, after the formal boundary for a mayoral development corporation was agreed.
West Midlands Combined Authority says the soon-to-be-created East Birmingham Mayoral Development Corporation will speed-up decision-making on the city’s highest-profile regeneration schemes, with planning powers for major projects also set to pass to the MDC later this year.
The public body will cover an area from Birmingham City Centre to Bordesley Green, providing a “more streamlined” path for decision making and funding for schemes including the HS2 terminus at Curzon Street, the Sports Quarter, Knowledge Quarter, and the £2bn Smithfield development.
Powers allocated to the MDC, agreed in October, are likely to include planning and development management, compulsory purchase orders, land assembly, financial assistance and business rate relief.
A total of £3m has been allocated from WMCA’s reserves to cover the costs of setting up the body.
An outline business case presented earlier this year by WMCA stated that the scale of regeneration across Birmingham now makes it “unrealistic” for the city council to effectively manage major projects part of its everyday functions.
The report said the new body would be “fully focussed” on accelerating delivery of critical projects within its boundary, and provide a single point of contact for private sector developers to work with.
The new East Birmingham MDC will focus its activities on the six priority projects:
- Park Birmingham, set to include the redevelopment of the former M&S and Rackhams buildings in the central heart district
- Smithfield
- Birmingham Knowledge Quarter
- Digbeth
- Sports Quarter
- Curzon HS2 Station
Transport and infrastructure delivery could also be better-integrated with major schemes, such as the East Birmingham Metro extension, designed to link up with the £3bn Sports Quarter project in Bordesley Green.
A shadow MDC board will now prepare a first-year business plan ahead of the formal establishment of the body, set to be completed in May.
“It’s important to recognise the MDC in the wider context of the MDC zone which will extend development out towards Solihull and connect the two HS2 stations in the city,” said Ed Cox, WMCA chief executive, presenting the report to the combined authority’s board meeting on Friday, 13 March.
“Although the focus of this MDC is on six potential sites in Birmingham, the benefits will be spread throughout the city in terms of the number of homes which are created, and the number of jobs which are created.”
