Birmingham: Some Key Facts

TRANSPORT

Railways

By 2014 Birmingham will have completed the £600m redevelopment of New Street. Overall benefits generated by the scheme in excess of £2bn, it will be the catalyst for the creation of over 10,000 jobs, promises a benefit cost ratio of over £4:£1 and will create a station with 150% additional passenger capacity over the current one.
Passenger figures up 40% nationally in last ten years and New Street – which was designed for 60,000 passengers a day – is now used by 120,000 passengers a day
Each week approximately 3.1million people pass through New Street Station – more than the entire combined populations of Manchester and Liverpool.
In 2008 the architects for the project, Foreign Office – specifically Alejandro Zaera-Polo, impressed the world with their grand, Cathedral-like vision for the station.
The New station will include 42 new escalators and 14 new lifts and a new 10,500 sq. m. concourse, two and a half times bigger than the current one
Enabling works are due to start late 2009, new concourse complete in 2012 with the station fully open in late 2014
Birmingham is continuing to bring London closer; Chiltern Railways, who run the Marylebone to Moor St. route, are one of the best value rail operators offering return fares to London for as little as £18. With investment of around £200million they are slashing journey times by 25% by 2011 (to an hour and a half), and with the opening of a new platform at Moor St. capacity will be increased at our direct link to London’s fastest growing rail terminal.

Airport

Birmingham International Airport (BIA) has been voted best UK business airport four times in the last six years.
There are direct scheduled flights from Birmingham to over 40 destinations in Europe, North America and Asia
According to the UK Air Passenger Traffic Statistics 2009, BIA was one of only two British airports to show year-on-year growth.
The extension of the runway at Birmingham International Airport, due for completion in 2012/2013, will connect Birmingham directly to more of the world’s major growth hubs.

Miscellaneous

Birmingham can boast more canals – many of them key historical waterways dating back to the first days of the Industrial Revolution – than even Venice.
There are over 800,000 commuting trips taken in and out of Birmingham each day.

INWARD INVESTMENT & REGENERATION

New investment committed or proposed for the City in the next decade exceeds some £20bn in value.
The ambitious and award-winning Big City Plan will expand the city centre from 0.8sq km to 8sq km over the next decade – a 1000% growth.
Birmingham City Council is currently planning the £750million Longbridge Area Action Plan, which will create up to 10,000 new jobs.
By 2013 Birmingham will be enjoying Europe’s largest public Library, with our £193m project underway and on target.
The transformational and award winning Big City Plan is remains underpinned by over £6 billion of public sector investment.
Recently seen the launch of the revised Area Investment Prospectus. 20 sites worth £1.5bn, identified in the previous Investment Prospectuses, are moving forward. A further 13 new investment opportunities have been identified for the revised Prospectus.
Developments continue across the city; in the North West the former HP factory site has been sold for the development of a new food distribution centre. In the South a £16m contract has been agreed for the completion of the Selly Oak Relief Road and in the East the Airport Runway Extension has received government approval.

CLEANER & GREENER

Birmingham is one of only 12 Cities in 2008/09 to be awarded a ’5 Star’ rating by the British Cleansing Council.
Birmingham is recognized as the Cleanest City, and Cleanest Place in the UK – as current holder of the British Cleaning Council’s awards.
Many surrounding Local Authorities typically charge £13 for each bulky waste collection, when in Birmingham residents do not pay a penny for – a service that around 150,000 citizens take full advantage of each year.
Last year the City recycled over 30% of domestic waste and sent less than 15% of waste to landfill - one of the best performing Authorities in the Country; and saving over 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions
The City’s refuse collection services continue to receive high levels of resident satisfaction and represent outstanding value for money in comparison to other Authorities (BVPI best quartile)

SAFER

Birmingham has also continued to reduce total crime, at the end of 2008/9 recorded crime had reduced by 7.4% against 2007/08 with each month this year was lower than the corresponding month the previous year.
This reduction has meant crime in Birmingham has fallen by a third since 2003/04 with over 46,000 fewer offences.
Compared to the other core cities Birmingham’s rate of crime is the lowest - with almost half that of Manchester’s.
Birmingham continues as the safest of the eight core cities with the lowest total recorded crime figures for 2008-9 in the UK. In fact, our crime rate for our family group is lower than many other medium sized towns and cities.
Total recorded crime in Birmingham has reduced by over 26% in 2008 compared to 2004. This means that there were some 36,000 fewer victims of crime last year compared with four years ago.
Total Gun Crime reduced by -5% with knife crime reducing by 4%. Arson Incidents reduced by -15%.
Violent crimes reduced by 8% with Birmingham now having a smaller rate than its statistical neighbours.
Feelings of safety during the day continue to remain high having reached 95%

EDUCATION

With its three universities Birmingham has 65,000 students in higher education.
Graduate retention from the City’s universities is rising – while some 70% of Birmingham University’s intake comes from outside the region, almost 50% stay in the City to begin their employment careers.
The percentage of pupils achieving 5 A*-C GCSE’s is now 66.4%, again above the England average
A’ level and equivalent results for the city’s schools with sixth forms are rising above the national average, with the 2% more candidates achieving one or more A-C grades this year – bringing the total to 86%!
Birmingham – the most popular big city for undergraduates with applications up 13% for 2009
In February 2009 Birmingham City Council (BCC) announced that Catalyst Education would under-take a £2.4bn drive to rebuild or refurbish all 89 of our secondary schools by 2024.
Birmingham City Council is undertaking the construction of eight new Academies, specialising in training students in Business and Economics. (22 June 2009)
Birmingham City University has seen domestic applications increase 40%, and international applications increase almost 20%, since re-branding itself from UCE and aligning to the City’s international image

SUSTAINABILITY

Birmingham’s first Eco Village, Family Housing Association, won the 2008 National Energy Efficiency Award in recognition of the £2.3million Eco Village project, developed in partnership with Birmingham City Council.

CONFERENCING & EVENTS

In October 2008 Birmingham hosted the Conservative Party Conference (22 June 2009)
In June 2009 Birmingham hosted the 100th World Rotarian Conference, an event that attracted 20,000 visitors and generated almost £20m for the local economy. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Archbishop Desmond Tutu appeared as guest speakers.
In 2010 Birmingham will host the Conservative Party Conference (22 June 2009)
In 2010 Birmingham will host the Liberal Democrat Party Spring Conference (22 June 2009)
In 2011 Birmingham will host the Liberal Democrat Party Main Conference (22 June 2009)

VISITOR DESTINATION

In 2008 Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market boosted the city’s economy by an estimated £67million: compared to £47.69million in 2006 and £56million 12 months later.
Visitor numbers continued their upward trend to a record breaking 2.8million, and trade was up 27% on 2007. If you aggregate the visitor numbers from both the German and English ‘German’ Christmas Markets, Birmingham’s would come out as the fifth biggest overall, just behind Munich, Bavaria. (22 June 2009)
In 2009 Birmingham emerged as the “second culinary capital outside of London“(The Times) with three restaurants holding a coveted Michelin Star: Purnell’s, Simpsons and Turners. This is significantly better than Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool which have no Michelin Starred restaurants.
Birmingham is home to Europe’s largest most successful retail development –the Bull Ring– with annual footfall approaching £40million.
An independent ranking system by CACI 2009 showed that Birmingham is hot on the heels of the West End, London, as the place to shop in Europe – while Manchester, the third city, continues to slip down the ranks. (22 June 2009)
The percentage of tourists who think that Birmingham is a good place to visit has increased to 72% (against a target of 66%).

WORLD-CLASS SPORTING CITY

Over the last 15 years it has hosted more world and European Championships than any other UK City
Aston Villa FC is a former winner of the European Cup and recently finished in sixth place in the Barclays Premier League, English football’s top flight. (22 June 2009)
Birmingham continues to attract more and more visitors with 1.5million more people more visiting the city than in 2007 compared to 2006. Indeed, in 2007 31.9million people visited Birmingham for leisure and spent £4.4bn. Over 2007 there has been a £55million increase in spend on food and drink, a £40.5million on recreation, and £242million increase in shopping.
Birmingham City Council has recently launched a unique marketing partnership, bringing together the city’s two rival football teams with a sponsorship deal worth over £1.4million, to reach the global football audience of 3.1bn people with our visitbirmingham.com brand.

ARTS & CULTURE

Film Birmingham, has had record numbers of requests to film in the City and has enabled four feature films to be made here. The BBC has relocated ‘Survivors’ here and we have also secured the hit series ‘Hustle’
Attendances at Birmingham’s Museums during 2008/9 were 10% up on 2007/8
Research into the arts shows more people getting involved, not just attending, but in managing and promoting activities - a 200% increase in the number of volunteers in the sector over the past three years.
The sector continues to grow, with an increase in earned income and a 27% increase in full time work in the sector over the past three years.

SUPPORTING CITIZENS IN THE DOWNTURN

Birmingham City Council now runs the Supporting People program, which “aims to help vulnerable people improve their quality of life by providing a stable environment, which enables them to live more independently”. (22 June 2009)
Supporting People operates 944 schemes that provide vital housing-related support services. (22 June 2009)
BCC has recently taken measures to protect employment in Birmingham during the dark days of the economic recession:
After LDV Group Limited, a van manufacturer based in Ward End, Birmingham, went into administration in April 2009, BCC sent a debts & benefits advice team and a JobCentre Plus team into the factory to increase employability in the struggling company.
The Birmingham Procurement Fair will be attended in 2009 by an unprecedented number of 42,000 West midlands businesses. (22 June 2009)

DEMOGRAPHICS

Birmingham City Council is the largest local authority in the UK and one of the largest in Europe, with an equivalent turnover of £3.2bn.
Birmingham has two million people living within a 40 minute travel time.
Birmingham is within an urban region with a population of four and a half million. (22 June 2009)
Birmingham has over 90,000 people employed in financial and professional services – second only, in the UK, to London.
Birmingham has 200 law firms, 19 out of the top twenty British accountancies, 50 major property services firms and Europe’s second largest insurance market.
74% of Birmingham employment is now in sectors where employment will see a substantial increase in the next decade.
With the highest proportion of population aged 24 or less, Birmingham is the Youngest City (in demographic terms) in the EU.

CITY GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP

Birmingham City Council is leading the way on national issues; having been awarded Beacon Status (one of the most prestigious awards for any local authority) for our clear vision, excellence, and innovation in increasing voluntary and community sector service delivery.
In 2009 Birmingham City Council delivered a fourth successive below-inflation increase in Council Tax of 1.9%: the lowest of any core city and one of the lowest in the country. Over the four years our average Council Tax increases have been the lowest of any Metropolitan Authority.
CPA results have double the number rated “good” or better than three years ago (out of the seven areas rated, 3 were good+ in 2005, 4 last year and 6 this year)
The Audit Commission’s overall assessment is that we are “improving well” – their second highest rating.
The Town Hall, formerly the seat of BCC, was at its opening in 1834 acclaimed as “the finest music hall in the country” and is now a Grade I listed landmark building.

HOUSING

In January 2009 Birmingham City Council’s Strategic Housing Department became one of only three departments in the country to receive an OFSTED rating of 2 stars with excellent prospects. That puts our city in the top 5% of councils across the country.
The Ley Hill Regeneration Scheme won the National Home Improvement Council Award 2007 for “the best Brownfield or recycled project”.
“A strong local partnership transformed a former council owned estate into a new, sustainable, mixed tenure neighbourhood with more than 450 new homes”
Since 2003 the number of homeless people sleeping rough on the city streets has been reduced by 59%. (22 June 2009)
Since April 2008 78.09% of Birmingham council housing meets the Decent Homes standard: giving us the highest proportion of such housing in the UK outside of London.
In 2009 announced plans to build over 131 new council homes in the next twelve months through the Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust. Ambitious plans will eventually deliver 500 new homes a year.

BUSINESS TRANSFORAMTION

Birmingham City Council continues to develop the largest change programme in the UK public sector, which now holds a national and international profile. Business Transformation has already produced net general fund savings of £7m in 2006/7, £11m in 2007/8, and £9.4million in 2008/9. Over the next year Business Transformation will create further savings of around £8.5million.
We are on track to deliver gross cashable benefits over the next ten years of £1,659m - resulting in net General Fund savings of £732m
On this basis, business transformation has achieved some £438m of cumulative cashable benefits to-date
Business Transformation is increasingly recognised as an exemplar (both nationally and internationally), and the Council has hosted or participated in many visits by UK and European public authorities over the last 6 months (examples: Manchester, Edinburgh, Northern Ireland Civil Service, CLG, Singapore, Barcelona).

ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE WITH COMMUNITIES

In 2008 Constituencies working with HR and Directorates put together an innovative neighbourhood trainee programme which has already enabled 42 16-18 year olds –not in education, or employment– to access learning by means of NVQs, training by means of work place placements. 12 of which are now already in full time employment.
Satisfaction with place in the Council’s Annual Opinion Survey improve on the 79% recorded in 2007 to class leading performance at 86% in 2008.

KEY ACCOLADES & AWARDS

UK Award for Excellence in Regeneration – New York 2004
European City of the Future – awarded at Expo Real, Munich 2005
The Birmingham Construction Partnership (Urban Design/Private Sector) won the first ever Contract Journal Supreme Award for “an organisation which is changing the way the UK construction industry works and which has made great steps in improving its own performance, or that of its customers or clients” – Contract Journal Awards 2007
Birmingham is one of only three UK cities to make the Mercer Report on global cities quality of life rankings, coming joint No. 56 with only London (No. 38) ahead from the UK
Best Business Environment – European Cities Entrepreneurship Ranking (ECER) 2008
Best Master Plan – BEX International Awards – Valencia 2008
Shortlist – European City of the Future – 2008
Birmingham was rated 56th in the globally recognized Mercer Report on the 100 Best Cities in the World for Quality of Life – the only British city ahead of us was London. (22 June 2009)