Build it – they will come

By Rob Valentine, regional director of Bruntwood

Birmingham is on the cusp of an unprecedented era of growth. News recently that work has begun on the Commonwealth Games Village makes this all the more real.

Being the host city for one of the world’s biggest sporting and cultural events in just four years’ time will leave a lasting legacy of new sporting facilities, social, physical, and economic regeneration and, most important of all, opportunities for people of all ages.

The Games will raise our global profile, drive further investment, create jobs and potentially redefine the image of what this region is.

Being the host city in 2002 gave Manchester a boost that it has since taken full advantage of, reporting massive economic upturn and curiosity. Its citizens rose to the challenge of being a host city by volunteering in their droves and welcoming visitors from all over the world, and I know our city region will rise to this too.

Yet, even before the announcement that our region would host one of the world’s most prestigious events, there has been more of a swagger about the city and for good reason.

We finally got our metro mayor, former John Lewis CEO, Andy Street. Birmingham was announced as the centre of the new HS2 universe and in a further boost, earlier this year a new £250m Midlands Engine Investment Fund was launched. The West Midlands has also made the Channel 4 HQ shortlist.

We are therefore in a highly enviable position to take a significant step forward and enjoy a massive leap in profile. It brings to mind the quote from the film, Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”

This is less about shiny new buildings and more about what they help create and the impact on the wider economy. People bring excitement, energy, opportunities ideas, networks and money. Put simply, they create places.

If truth be told, they are coming already – according to ONS figures Birmingham was the most popular destination for people relocating out of London than anywhere else in the country in 2015. This was also the case in 2016.

Outside of London, Birmingham racks up the accolades, to name but a few: most entrepreneurial regional city; best for jobs created from FDI; best for student performance; strongest growth in international tourism; the UK’s youngest and fastest growing regional city; in the top five UK cities for tech workers.

So it’s clear there is massive opportunity both now and in years to come to raise the bar and build a Birmingham for the future.

Bruntwood regional director Rob Valentine

With Brexit looming, there is a universally recognised need to ensure that the regions are playing more of a role in the economic drivers for the UK and putting the growth of the knowledge economy at the heart of any strategy for the future.

Bruntwood’s vision is to ensure that Birmingham is part of the story, especially through our recent acquisition of Innovation Birmingham, the region’s largest campus for digital technology companies.

For us, it’s crucial, therefore, that the campus has the infrastructure in place to expand its current base of more than160 businesses and make sure innovators and entrepreneurs are pursuing their passions, applying their knowledge and realising their potential in Birmingham.

So that’s capital, knowledge and connections – through to the universities, to the city council, to LEPs, even to innovation in other northern cities to create that ecosystem that allows Innovation Birmingham to continue making a long-lasting impact and maintain its status as being one of the best in class.

And so it needs to be an area of the city where young, start-up, entrepreneurial, savvy, technically gifted, intelligent people coming out of universities or other learning environments can come to be nurtured, to be challenged and to be given the opportunity to develop ideas and launch great businesses.

To realise this, to give the region greater strength and help us reach our economic potential, Andy Street needs to be equally as empowered as London mayor, Sadiq Khan.

It will supercharge the continuing collaborative efforts of the private and public sectors as we work together to demonstrate that the Midlands is one of the most competitive, attractive and dynamic destinations in the world.