birmingham

location

Birmingham is located centrally within the UK, and it the central part of the West Midlands conurbation (different urban areas that have joined up)

national importance

- Direct rail links to many UK cities. Used by over 34 million people in 2014
- New Street station is the busiest UK station outside of London
- Birmingham is one of the 'greenest' UK cities. It has over 8,000 acres of parks and open space
- Excellent job opportunities, including 200 law firms, 50 major property services and a range of other major companies such as Atkins, BBC and Jaguar Landrover
- Birmingham Hippodrome is the busiest theatre in the UK with over 520,000 visitors each year

international importance

- The European Cities Monitor rated Birmingham among the top 15 best cities in Europe in 2009
- £13 billion invested in infrastructure development over the next decade. The aim is to be a city of global importance
- Birmingham Airport had over 9 million customers in 2014. It has been extended to connect to more places in Africa, South America, China and the USA
Provides space to more than 300 companies from outside of the UK

impacts of national and international migration

- In 2012-2013, there were 12,000 international migrants and 40,800 UK migrants to Birmingham
p - many migrants are skilled workers which improves the economy of the area and migrants will pay taxes
p - citys culture is improved due to migration with events and festivals like chinese new year celebrations
n - pressure on jobs and housing
n - challenge for teachers and schools to support children whose first language isnt english

social opportunities

leisure and recreation
- bullring shopping
- largest public library in europe - 400,000 books
- hippodrome theatre - most visited theatre in uk (2000 seats)
- balti triangle - over 100 balti houses and over 20,000 visitors every week
- 5 michelin stars
cultural
- villa park seats nearly 43000 people
- stadium has 5 star rating from UEFA
- 38 million people shop at bullring each year
- NEC has over 750 events per year attracting over 7 million people

economic opportunities

- public administration, education and health - over 1/4 of all jobs
- 98% of uk consumers are within 4 hours travel time of city
national sea life centre (tourism)
- over 2000 creatures to learn about in over 60 displays
- winner of best venue for science learning 2016/17
bullring (retail)
- 1 million customers a week
- 8000 jobs created
cadbury (business)
- 13.6 million visitors (1990-2014)
- 500,000 visitors per year

environmental opportunities

urban greening: birmingham green commission
- planning framework and policy, sustainable energy and co2 reduction and the green economy
- target of a 60% reduction in total co2 emissions by 2027
urban greening: birmingham trees for life
- since 2006 planted over 70,000 trees
- want to complete a £1.2 billion integrated public transport network within 20 years which will allow people to travel across city in high quality vehicles

urban deprivation challenge

- having a quality of life below what is recognised as acceptable in a particular country
- birmingham measured 6th most deprived area in country
- major cause was industrial decline from 1970s when many businesses left city

inequality in housing, education, health and employment

- loss of employment means people cant afford home
- around 10,000 people homeless
- air a noise pollution
- low life expectancy close to city centre

dereliction challenge

- in 2015 birmingham ranked 3rd most deprived city in england
- derelict buildings such as closed factories or shops lead to poorer environmental conditions

brownfield sites and waste disposal challenge

- demand for housing increasing
- brownfield is more expensive as it needs cleaning and clearing and may be contaminated
- waste disposal increasing challenge as population increases
- in 2015 on 30% waste recycled

urban sprawl on rural-urban fringe challenge

urban sprawl \= the expansion of an urban area into less populated areas
- important area under pressure from urban sprawl
- range of land use demands includes development of transport networks and edge of town retail parks

growth of commuter settlements challenge

- over past 40 years most uk cities seen drift of population from city centre towards suburbs and commuter settlements
- increasing pressure on road networks and public transport

integrated transport challenge

- opened may 30 1999
- mostly using former great western railway route between birmingham snow hill and wolverhampton

reasons for regeneration

shopping
transport
train station

shopping

- in 1989 the merry hill out of town shopping centre opened
- birminghams city centre saw a decline in trade of 12% over the next 5 years

transport

- the tonnage of goods carried increased throughout the 19th Century, reaching 8 and a half million tonnes in 1898
- as canal industries declined and railways and roads took over the long distance transportation of goods, use of the canals decreased
- by 1980 all commercial traffic had stopped

train stations

- 170,000 passengers a day use Birmingham New Street, nearly triple the 60,000 a day it was designed for when it was last rebuilt in the 1960s
- British Rail sold the 'air rights' above a station, leading to the construction of the Pallasades Shopping Centre in 1970 above the station

how has birmingham been regenerated?

brindley place
eastside
bullring

brindley place

- over 8,500 people work in Brindleyplace for some of the UK's leading businesses
- site covers 17 acres (69,000 m²) of mixed-use redevelopment over 11 main buildings and 3 public squares
- receives more than four million visitors every year

eastside

- first major, new city centre park in Birmingham for more than 130 years
- Eastside City Park is a 6.75 acre urban park in Birmingham city centre
- park has over 14,000 square metres of landscaped green space, hundreds of trees, a large canal water feature and a public square

bullring

- £60m Selfridges store
- in the busiest weeks before Christmas, the Bullring attracts over 1 million visitors helping to boost the economy of the local area to over £500m
- average annual footfall of 38 million people