More than £250m spent and 500 jobs created for Perry Barr community

More than 500 jobs have been created during the construction of the Perry Barr residential scheme in Birmingham by Lendlease.

The property and investment group was the principal contractor for the scheme on behalf of Birmingham City Council. The firm set a number of objectives in order to support the local economy and bring wider community benefits.

More than £250m has been spent with the local community and more than 1,300 people have been upskilled on the site.

2,300 hours of volunteering have been completed for local charities including Birmingham Crisis Centre and the food bank at Eden Boys’ School.

Cllr Ian Ward, Leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “We’re determined that success for Birmingham will mean success for the people of Birmingham and this milestone on the Perry Barr Residential Scheme demonstrates the incredible wider benefit for the community of such a transformational regeneration project. We’re creating jobs, launching careers and delivering much-needed new homes for Birmingham.”

The tallest building on the scheme tops out at fifteen storeys and the first residents are expected to move in during 2023. The scheme is part of the wider £700million-plus regeneration of Perry Barr in the north-west of the city, including improved leisure and community facilities along with upgraded transport infrastructure.

Social value targets for the Perry Barr residential scheme were:

• 512 new jobs have been created (128% of target of 400 jobs)
• £253,346,871 local spend within 30 miles (186% of £136,061,500 local spend target)
• 2,308 volunteering hours have been achieved (231% of target of 1000 hours)
• 1,325 people upskilled on site (133% of 1000 target)
• 40,350.5 work placement hours achieved (384% of 10,500 hours target)

Lendlease is the Management Contractor for the Perry Barr residential scheme, working with Kier, Willmott Dixon and Vinci UK to deliver the project.

Anna Evans, Lendlease’s project director for the Perry Barr residential scheme, said: “This is a major milestone for the Perry Barr Residential Scheme and shows the immensely positive impact that Lendlease is having on the local community.

“Our wider efforts to raise awareness of the importance of sustainability will also have a lasting impact, and it’s something Lendlease will continue to strive for as we aim for net-zero carbon by 2025 and absolute-zero by 2040.”

New site hoardings have recently been erected around the site, designed by students from Birmingham Metropolitan college with the brief of raising awareness of single-use plastics.

In addition to this, Lendlease has sponsored the production of a new book to educate primary school children on single-use plastics. This was launched at Calshot Primary School and has now been distributed to over 450 pupils in primary schools across Birmingham.