City of Surprises

Birmingham is a city full of surprises. A vibrant, constantly changing city yet a relaxing place to live with plentiful green, open spaces and first rate sporting facilities. A city with excellent local schools and housing and a dynamic cultural and artistic life. A city to feel at home in, yet one with a real cosmopolitan feel.

Joseph Chamberlain would not recognise Birmingham today. But he would recognise the work he started. In the 1870s ‘Radical Joe’ transformed Birmingham, building a new city centre, bringing clean water and gas lighting to the people and creating a model of municipal government envied and copied by other cities. Great entrepreneurs like Richard and George Cadbury built businesses that still flourish today.

In the 1970s and 80s the City Council once again set about rebuilding the city, lifting the local economy out of the doldrums of a major recession. It built the National Exhibition Centre followed by the International Convention Centre and the National Indoor Arena.

The work continues. In recent times, the city centre has been transformed. Main streets have been pedestrianised, old buildings restored and magnificent new squares created.

Today, Birmingham can be proud of its progressive attitudes and achievements. A renaissance city, home to the world famous City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Royal Ballet. It also has four first class theatres and a range of fascinating heritage buildings, museums and art galleries.

Sports lovers can enjoy premier league soccer at Villa Park and St. Andrews, Test Match cricket at Edgbaston and Ryder Cup golf at the Belfry.

Birmingham is also a place of green open spaces, with 13.5 square miles of parkland, including Sutton Park, the largest urban park in Europe and recently designated as a National Nature Reserve. It has a variety of good housing on offer - from stuccoed Regency and elegant Victorian terraces to brand new luxury homes. It also has a wide range of schools with good academic standards - plus three universities. And if you live in the city, some of the most beautiful countryside in England - the Cotswolds, the Malverns, the Severn Valley and Cannock Chase - are right on your doorstep.

Birmingham needs clear leadership and a strong and compelling vision if it is to take full advantage of the challenges ahead. At its heart, our view of the future involves creating a Better Birmingham - a city with a higher quality of life and a premier location in which to live, work and invest. A city which will compare with the best in the world.

We have already made great strides in some of these areas, key amongst them the creation of a more inclusive city, challenging the inequalities and divisions that limit our success. With our clear commitment to address this issue, we have made significant progress in responding to the needs and aspirations of a diverse, multi-racial community. Now we intend to refocus our energies and increase opportunities for our most deprived areas and communities, building on the tremendous advantages provided by the city’s diversity and its increasingly cosmopolitan culture.

In other ways too we’re making advances. Through our Devolution plans we intend to engage more closely with local communities, devolving decision-making to empower our people and harness their talent for the good of all. Likewise, we’re determined to make Birmingham a Learning City. Not just a city with excellent schools and fine universities for our young people, but one where Lifelong Learning makes education and training accessible to everyone.

‘Joined up’ working is equally vital to Birmingham’s future. We intend to build stronger partnerships with local communities, businesses and other agencies, work across boundaries to create a culture that celebrates ideas, commitment and risk taking - in short, a ‘can do Council’.

Birmingham’s City Strategic Partnership is made up of senior figures from public agencies, voluntary organisations and the business sector. The partnership will be supporting the City to shape its future, outline critical success factors and encourage the joining up of resources and
expertise for the benefit of its 1 million citizens and diverse communities.

The partnership has recently produced the first Community Strategy for Birmingham setting out the vision and main priorities for the city. It will be overseeing the implementation of this strategy through a network of partnership activity across Birmingham including new local strategic partnerships based in each of the city ’s 11 District’s.

For Birmingham City Council, the way forward is to develop a closer symmetry between political and management objectives, ensuring the best of our ideas are successfully achieved. Tighter co-ordination, closer partnerships and strong leadership will enable us to achieve our objectives.

Our aim is set on continuing Birmingham’s renaissance, establishing ourselves as a major player on the world stage. We recognise that, even within this regenerated, exciting and enterprising city, there remains much to achieve, and we are setting about creating a purposeful decision-making framework with a coherent strategy and strong senior management to help us achieve it.