Birmingham has a large number of schemes in the pipeline. The question in the latest episode of Kanda’s Better Places Podcast is what it takes to get them built.

Allan, Director at Kanda and co-lead of the new Midlands offering, is joined by Andy Williams, who took up the newly created post of Director of Economy at Birmingham City Council three months ago. They discuss how one of Europe’s largest regeneration pipelines translates into delivery, and what is currently getting in the way.

Birmingham’s population is approaching 1.2 million. Its workforce is young and growing. Outside London, no other UK city has the same concentration of universities and higher education provision. Williams sets out what these factors could mean for sustainable growth across the city and the wider region.

With viability under pressure, he argues that the difference between schemes that complete and schemes that stall is increasingly about credibility.

The conversation covers the East Birmingham Mayoral Development Corporation, intended to give investors one point of contact rather than several, and the wider development corridor extending to Arden Cross and Birmingham Airport. On devolution, Williams points to specific examples: business rate retention at Paradise, the Knowledge Quarter Investment Zone, and proposals for more local flexibility over 14–19 skills funding and delivery.

He also looks at the potential impact of HS2 and Curzon Street Station, including what a 40-minute journey between the UK’s two largest cities could mean for international investment, and at how the new administration is setting its priorities for the next decade.

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