Midlands Property

Birmingham City Council was quick to capitalise today on one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's relatively rare visits to the city to announce the preferred route of High Speed 2, the new rail connection from London to Birmingham and beyond. Council leader Mike Whitby rubbed shoulders with the PM in the middle of Eastside on the proposed site of the new Birmingham High Speed rail terminus and waxed lyrical about the £1.2bn economic impact of high speed rail on the city.

But before anyone gets too excited it is worth remembering that the actual delivery of HS2 will be anything but speedy. According to the government, the first train just might (and that's a fairly hefty maybe) slip into Birmingham in 2026 - that's 17 years away. If that doesn't sound too long, consider where you'll be then. If you're in your early forties and older, with a bit of luck you'll be sunning yourself on your Cote d'Azur yacht and high speed will simply be a measurement of how fast your iced cocktails reach your sun lounger.

Seriously though, the reality is that there is at least one property cycle to go through before HS2 arrives. The publication of the preferred route gives welcome certainty as to where the tracks will go, but of course how committed a future government (of any colour) will be when it comes to shelling out the huge sums involved is far from certain.

So now the ballyhoo about the HS2 announcement is simmering down, perhaps the council can get back to the more immediate business of fast tracking the Big City Plan (see my blogs passim) and working with the private sector to make rapid and real progress on regenerating core parts of Birmingham within the next decade.

There may be a recession on and champers budgets may have been cut, but plenty of bods from the West Mids are still preparing to head out to Cannes for MIPIM next week.

As ever, a team from Birmingham will be flying the flag for the UK's second city. And the publicity machine has been put into overdrive to communicate what Team Birmingham will be up to.

So far this week I've seen stories about a competition to win a VIP motoring day in Brum (see pic above), the high number of one company's MDs originating from Brum, the Brum band who will play in the Martinez every night next week and other things which escape me already. All good stuff, but nothing yet to do with, er, property. Ah well, no doubt TB is saving all the serious stuff for next week!...

 

Spare a thought today for two brave souls from the East Midlands, who are, as you read this, pedalling furiously towards London. MIPIM delegates Nigel Turpin (Head of Urban Design) and Jon Collins (leader of Nottingham City Council) left Nottingham yesterday on two wheels to join the main Cycle to Cannes event which departs London tomorrow.

 

Innes England director Tim Garratt blogged about this yesterday, but I make no apology for a blatant piece of recycling (geddit?!) when it comes to supporting those in the region who are prepared to, quite literally, get on their bikes.

 

Good luck chaps and everyone else cycling to MIPIM over the next few days. EG looks forward to welcoming you across the finish line next Tuesday.

 

If you would like to follow updates from the cyclists getting ready to head to Cannes: Click here for EG's own MIPIM Blog http://tinyurl.com/ya6f2yx

It seems like only yesterday that Birmingham city council leader Mike Whitby was strutting around MIPIM (in a way only politicians seem to do) trumpeting Europe's largest masterplanning exercise and hiring big gun Sir Michael Parkinson to do the initial thinking. In fact it was February 2007. Since then there have been a few announcements - Urban Initiatives appointed in August 07, the Big City Plan Charter report in 2008 and the key issues report in July 2009. Since then things have gone rather quiet, especially after not one, but two of the council officials most involved with what had become the Big City Plan bailed out for pastures new.

So where now for BCP? In an exclusive interview in tomorrow's Estates Gazette I pressed the new man in the hot seat - Waheed Nazir (pictured above) - for some answers. He was as candid as he could be for someone only bumped into the job a few weeks previously. But he made it quite clear that there will be nothing new on the BCP until this summer (June), when crucial details will be revealed for the first time.

Gary Cardin, head of Drivers Jonas in Birmingham (right), is one of many that have been frustrated by the lack of news from the BCP in recent months and believes people still care about the project. As he says: "Should we be bothered if the BCP falters?  Yes we should. The plan can have ambition and should have something to say about Birmingham.  If we water it down or reduce its impact it will fail to capture all the aims it set out to address and become resigned to sit along a range of other studies, reports and documents gathering dust. The Big City Plan must live on."

Waheed Nazir can help in the coming months by delivering on his promise to get out into the property community and getting to know the individuals who will have a material part to play in realising the city's future development. Above all, though, Birmingham city council needs to get a move on. Planning on this scale ought not to be rushed. But there comes a time when the plans need to turn into action. And that time is soon.

To tweak a well-known phrase: the property industry abhors a vacuum. Yet a vacuum is exactly what we're getting from our politicians when it comes to the future of regional development agencies. It's not so much whether they are going to stay or not that's vexing the people I speak to across the Midlands, it's what will happen next. Will AWM and EMDA be with us this time next year? If so, in what form? If not, what will replace them?

These are basic and reasonable questions from an industry where property cycles run over years rather than months and major redevelopments can take over a decade from start to finish. Yet politicians of all hues are doing what they seem to do best - avoiding the issue.

If you want the High Speed 2 rail link in Birmingham then now is the time to say. For those who couldn't make last Thursday's High Speed Two Rail Conference at the ICC and/or missed my tweets live from the conference this was perhaps the key message from the event. The business community - and the influential property community in particular - needs to find a common voice and start using it if one of the region's most significant infrastructure projects is to become a reality.

As Birmingham City Council chief executive Stephen Hughes put it: "We're not making enough noise. Liam Byrne [local MP and chief secretary to HM Treasury] and Lord Adonis [Secretary of State for Transport] have told me that they want us to shout more and put more letters in their in-tray. We need a campaign, like the one we had for New Street, which was successful as we now have the funding."

It was a shame then that neither Byrne nor Adonis could take up the offer of an invite to speak at the conference - perhaps no-one asked them loudly enough? - but you heard the politicians right: they want us to badger them.

Time for some Friday afternoon frivolity, following the weighty HS2 Conference in Birmingham yesterday (serious thoughts about this to follow on Monday)...

As the event was hosted by Birmingham City Council it was perhaps inevitable that council leader Mike Whitby would loom large in the proceedings. And those familiar with goings-on in Brum will know that Whitby has form when it comes to public speaking gaffes. So you'll be pleased to hear that yesterday he didn't disappoint. Savour this little gem:
 
"Why are we holding this HS2 conference now? Because today is an opportunity for blue water thinking."

 

Lifeguard for Whitby!

 

I wish I had a penny for every tale of woe from property people describing their frustrations about driving to and from meetings across the Midlands.  Especially the journeys that involve navigating around Birmingham or Nottingham city centres. If I did, I'd be writing this blog from the Bahamas!

As it is I'm stuck in Blighty with everyone else, but I do use the train often, where I can at least work while travelling, which can't be done when stuck in a traffic jam on the M1, M42 or wherever. To be fair more and more property folk are leaving the car at home, or at least at the station, when they can. But how far will they go?

Cool as they look and as environmentally-friendly as they are, I wonder whether property professionals will ever be tempted to nip around on electric scooters. Sure, they charge up fully in 30 minutes from a standard 13amp socket and at a cost of only 8p per charge. Just over quarter a penny per mile isn't bad by anyone's standards, but with a reach of just 30 miles per charge they won't be good for long hauls. Or dropping the kids off to school. Or picking up a client.

However, Nottingham-based John Long (pictured), sustainable development director at regeneration developer Blueprint, seemed chuffed after giving an escooter a two-week trial around the mean streets of Nottingham: "It makes virtually no noise, produces no CO2 emissions, and doesn't even cost anything in terms of road tax," he says"

So, the question is: gimmick or gimme one now? Can you seriously see yourself blazing a trail across the Midlands on a 'leccy scooter or would you rather walk? And are developers doing enough to build in outside charging points for electric cars and scooters into new developments? Join the debate by posting a response to this blog.

 

 

Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham was the guest of honour at legal firm Hammonds official launch of its refurbished offices and exhibition of great Brummies past and present, at Rutland House in Edmund Street, in the city last night.

The former director general of the CBI and trade minister returned to his roots to wish Hammonds well. As a past employee of the then Edge & Ellison, the firm has come a long way in the last 32 years since Jones first came through the doors at Rutland House as a young article clerk.

Ian Forrester, senior partner at Hammonds joked: "Digby was a slimish, energetic and enthusiastic young man all those years ago. He's still energetic and enthusiastic!"

Never one to shun the limelight and hold back on his opinions, Jones went on to regale guests with tales from his days as a lawyer and then as a politician. Waving the banner for Brum he said: "This nation is in trouble. But there's a city that says "we'll get ourselves out of this mess, but we need strong leadership.

"This city gave me my big break and I now ask that we all give Birmingham our support in these challenging times."

However, when I and a former colleague took Jones aside to ask him what he thought was going to happen to RDA's post general election this year, Jones literally grabbed the next person passing by and made his excuses quicker than you could say "spending cuts."

So much for support eh?

"I want to see city centre regeneration as a key corporate theme through all of our activities," declared Derby City Council chief executive Adam Wilkinson (pictured above) over breakfast this morning.

No, he wasn't addressing his wife and children over a bowl of cornflakes chez Wilkinson, rather a room full of key property players at Innes England's launch of its third annual Market Insite Review in Derby.

Wilkinson was out and about pressing the flesh and banging the Derby regeneration drum for all to hear (I recently caught up with him and had an in-depth chat about his plans for the city in EG's East Midlands Focus published on 24th January - click here).

All eyes were on the no-nonsense chief exec, who also revealed - ahead of next month's MIPIM event - the following £100m worth of initiatives for the city: