What's Happening In Your Area

Newtown Masterplan

All of the regeneration activities in Newtown are set within a Masterplan for the area which has been funded by Urban Living. This comprehensive plan will align all of the activities in the area and provide a phased framework for further investment in Newtown. Further work on individual areas is being undertaken in consultation with residents prior to its completion.

North East Newtown Redevelopment

This clearance area will provide up to 400 new homes at a gateway location to the city. To date 34 private dwellings have been acquired, with Birmingham City Council contributing a further 79 split into 4 clearance phases:

North East Newtown
Phase 1, 2 and 3

Urban Living is assisting Birmingham City Council to assemble a large scale site for a future high quality residential redevelopment. It will also link up with ‘MyPlace’ a high profile Big-Lottery funded initiative to create world class youth facilities which will invest £5m in the area. Phase 1 of the old estate is nearing completion, with phases 2 and 3 planned for completion by March 2011. We are funding additional support to the residents of the area to help minimise the upheaval of their move.

Phase 4

Urban Living is supporting the process to start clearing phase 4 of North East Newtown. Families affected by the clearance will have the opportunity to relocate to nearby, newly refurbished, previously empty properties which Urban Living has brought back onto the market.

We are currently providing £325,000 to help develop detailed plans for the first area to be rebuilt and that area includes 14 new homes for the Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust. In addition we (UL & BCC) have jointly commissioned DBA, a specialist consultancy, to prepare funding and delivery plans for the whole of the rebuilding phase.

The Big lottery fund have approved £5m to construct a community facility called ‘my space,’ within which Urban Living are funding a ‘train and build’ project, where local young people will be offered the chance to train in construction skills while building their own home. 3 residents will be employed by the demolition company for 18 months.

UL spend - £3m, Acquisitions 34, Demolitions 152.

Manton & Reynolds Towers

Birmingham City Council, Urban Living and the HCA are co-funding the refurbishment of these tower blocks.

Birmingham City Council will be providing funding for the improvement of the blocks to decent homes standard. Urban Living is providing the funding to improve the external image of the tower blocks, while the HCA is funding the installation of a combined heat and power system. The services are housed within the proposed blue ‘fins’ that will run up the external face of the towers.

Projected UL spend £1m (10-11)

Crocodile Works

To date Urban Living has invested over £3.5 million to acquire sites covering 1.5 hectares on the former Crocodile Works site with a further £3.6 million committed to help build the new homes in 2010/11. Working in partnership with Midland Heart - a significant landlord in the area - and the Homes & Communities Agency, the site has been completely cleared and the development is now taking shape. This will provide 169 new homes, helping kick-start the wider regeneration of Newtown being led by Birmingham City Council.

The flagship development remains on target for completion for February 2011.

Other activity undertaken to date:

Clyde Tower

Urban Living provided funding towards the demolition of this high rise block of unpopular social housing. The site is located on the main A34, which is a major route into the City of Birmingham, it is planned for redevelopment as a high profile, sustainable scheme.

Gerrard Close

This project centred on the development of 23 new homes on a brownfield site - 14 rented and 9 homes for sale (through resale covenant), part-funded by the then Housing Corporation. The scheme was an early 'demonstration project', meeting a high-quality design spec and providing desirable, modern homes in an area where such sales have previously been untested.

The aim of the project was to support tenure diversification by making affordable home ownership available through resale covenant. Started in January 2005 and completed in June 2006, the project was led by Midland Heart in partnership with Birmingham City Council, the former Housing Corporation and Urban Living.

The reseal covenants are managed by Midland Heart, with Birmingham City Council retaining an interest under the resale covenant.

Spend £600,000, 23 New Build.