Birmingham Heartlands Development Corporation - History - Pre-designation

Pre-designation

By the 1980s, the area, which was loosely defined as Nechells, consisted of run down housing, derelict wasteland and former industries. It was showing multiple signs of inner city decay and housed around 13,000 people. Proposals to develop the area were first launched in 1987 by Birmingham City Council. The area was not designated as a central government development corporation, however, the government allowed a local public-private partnership to develop plans through a relaxed planning regime through designation as a Simplified Planning Zone. A development agency, named Birmingham Heartlands Ltd., was set up in 1988. 35% was owned by Birmingham City Council whilst the remaining 65% was owned mainly by construction companies. The Chamber of Commerce was given one share and the right to vote on company decisions. Birmingham City Council provided to councillors to be board members whilst the other members were from three local development companies and two nationally-based development companies. These nationally-based development companies were Tarmac and Wimpey.

In 1988, the development agency adopted a development strategy which focussed upon economic development, the improvement of housing and the improvement of the environment. The Heartlands area was broken up into project areas. Government Estate Action funding was used to improve housing and to provide a mixture of tenures in the area which had been dominated mainly by council housing. The funding was provided in the project areas that had been specifically designated to be focussed upon housing. Areas closer to the city centre were given commercial designations. To prevent conflicts with city centre uses, the commercial areas in the Heartlands were targeted at a specific market. Aston Science Park, which had opened in 1983, was further developed and close to the science park, the Aston Waterlinks village was constructed. This was built using £6.2 million of government City Grant. The business village, located alongside the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, was constructed by Waterlinks plc, a company set up by four of the five board members, to provide jobs for 750 people. It cost a total of £28 million.

When the government launched the City Challenge Partnership scheme as a consolidated inner city funding regime, Birmingham Heartlands Ltd. entered the competition, however, failed to win. This led to a radical organisational change. The public-private partnership moved power to the government. In May 1992, the government redesignated it a Development Corporation for a five-year period. The Development Corporation came into being on July 1, 1992.