Jewellery Quarter businesses attack cash cuts

TRADE associations in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter have launched a vociferous campaign to protect small businesses in the historic district following the city council’s plans to slash the area’s budget by 50 per cent.

The Jewellery Quarter Lobby Group said it was appalled at the authority’s “scattergun” approach to making cuts in the £250,000 annual budget.

The council, which is the biggest landowner in the area with 340 properties, cut the number of employees in the Quarter’s Regeneration Partnership office from five to just one and was looking to make further savings.

But the group, made up from representatives from the Jewellery Quarter Association, Jewellery Quarter Marketing Initiative, JIBBS, the ASSAY office and Jewellery Quarter Neighbourhood Forum, described the action as “ill conceived” and criticised the fact that plans had been put forward without any consultation.

Stephen Whittaker, a spokesman for group and a member of the Jewellery Quarter Marketing Initiative, said the decision flew in the face of the authority’s pledge to put the area forward for World Heritage Status.

“To do that, the council needs commitment in terms of finance and people. How can it do so when the budget is being cut by 50 per cent and one person is expected to the work that five did?” he asked.

The Jewellery Quarter is home to 1,600 businesses – a quarter of which are involved in the jewellery trade – employing 19,700 workers and generating an estimated £2,000 million in turnover.

Mr Whittaker said the authority had a duty to protect the businesses and to continue investing in the area.

“We are pragmatists: we understand cuts have to be made in this economic climate, but this is an important part of Birmingham. It is one of the few identifiable areas in the city, where people come here not only to shop but to visit this unique place,” he explained.

“There seems to have been no cohesion to the plans. Instead, the council has adopted a rather scattergun approach to it, which does not give us any confidence.

“I think the city council has been surprised at the strength of our responses to these proposed cuts, but we weren’t prepared to go away and let it happen. The Jewellery Quarter would have died.

“If we hadn’t have protested in the way we have, we believe it could have been much worse.”

He said its protests have led to the council giving assurances over the future of the Tourist Information Centre for the next two years and to ring-fencing the £20,000 marketing budget for 2010-11. The final budget will be agreed at a council Cabinet meeting at the end of February.

But the lobby group would be putting pressure on the council to ensure that work would continue to promote, invest and protect the area.

“The council is completely obsessed with Digbeth and Eastside, putting millions of pounds into projects there,” said Mr Whittaker. “Yet, the Jewellery Quarter, which has existing employment, is given a very poor share of the pot.”

Andy Munro, Jewellery Quarter Regeneration Partnership Operations Director, said: “Birmingham City Council is committed to the Jewellery Quarter.

“It has responded to the community’s call to action but what will be most important in this process is agreement with the community over the robust action plan to ensure that things already in the pipeline are delivered and not affected.”