Urban Growth Company set to unveil ‘art of the possible’ for UK Central

THE man responsible for pushing forward on the delivery of the ambitious plans for UK Central is aiming for “the art of the possible” when his organisation publishes its plans in the coming weeks.

Huw Lewis, who two months ago began work as managing director of the Urban Growth Company, is finalising a “high-level plan” that will be made public before the end of the year.

It will be the first milestone for the newly-created delivery body responsible for UK Central, which encompasses four major growth zones around Solihull and has a £600m funding pot to support its delivery.

Mr Lewis said: “There is positive mood music out of the Combined Authority and Solihull and local stakeholders, such as Jaguar Land Rover and Birmingham Airport. They have shared their views on aspirational growth and we are pulling them together in a high-level plan for the Urban Growth Company.

“It is the big picture plan that sets out the art of the possible rather than a more constrained view. We are an independent body which means we are not fettered like politicians can be.”

The publication of the plan will give the Urban Growth Company a foundation to be able to influence local authorities, Highways England, HS2 and others in terms of the infrastructure priorities for the area to allow growth to take place.

The four zones which are seen as major investment areas are the hub – a traingular area around the Birmingham Interchange station – North Solihull, Solihull town centre, and Blythe Valley Park area.

Mr Lewis said: “Everybody has been historically focused on the triangle site but it is much wider than that. The airport will keep growing, NEC will keep growing, JLR will keep growing. We need housing, we need to improve transport infrastructure. The smart plan is to put in place plans that allow that flexibility.”

The Urban Growth Company has held symposiums with authorities and major businesses and have received “a candid view” of development plans – subject to nondisclosure agreements – about what they plan to do in the next 10 years.

“I have got everybody inside of the tent, that’s a powerful message,” said Mr Lewis. “It’s not just Urban Growth Company coming up with their view and ideas, it’s positive engagement with outputs.

“We have a real opportunity to present the art of the possible.”

The forthcoming mayoral election next May will introduce another layer of unknowns, but Mr Lewis and his team are pressing ahead with developing their own strategy.

“There are two ways of looking at it,” he said. “The feedback of government is that they see Urban Growth Company, an independent body, as a possible option to a mayor-led development corporation.

“It could be that the mayor wants one or that UGC morphs into it, but that’s 18 months away.

“HS2 want to start on site in 2018, Highways England want to start on junction six in 2019, so we need to have a plan before that.”

The plan that is being created will present a 15-year vision split into three five-year periods. It will look at what is required and then track what Network Rail, landowners and authorities will need to do “to deliver and unlock growth opportunities”.

Mr Lewis said: “Success will be having clarity of who is doing what, how much it will cost and timescales for doing it.

“I believe that is possible. The one thing for certain is change so we can just do our best guess based on what we know today.”

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