One of England’s most deprived areas, North Solihull, has been hidden by the wealth of the borough’s more desirable locations. This juxtaposition has led to a failure to secure government funding for wide-scale regeneration, but has led to the creation of a unique regeneration partnership and finance model.
An area suffering from two decades of deprivation has remained bureaucratically hidden due to the prosperity of its wealthy neighbour, which represents one of the most affluent parts the country.
North Solihull, on the border of Birmingham, and once part of the city’s jurisdiction, has long been faced with a view of the Midland’s more bountiful towns south of the Borough.
While Solihull Council might not like to separate the region, it has spent the past five years planning a regeneration renaissance for the tarnished northern quarter, to provide its residents and businesses with the same opportunities for growth through revitalisation.
'But the wealth contained in the southern parts of Solihull mean that overall, the Borough loses out on Government and EU regeneration funding,' explains Paul Watson, Director of Regeneration and Development, Solihull Council.
The general consensus is that north Solihull towns bordering Birmingham have an acute history of persistent social and economic problems, a high number and demand for social housing and schools that are out of date and unappealing to students.
'A series of small-scale and partial initiatives have been rolled out over the years to try to counteract these problems, but as they were financially limited, they failed to tie together and their failure highlighted the need for a more holistic approach.
'Our best chance for valuable regeneration financing lay in our land and property assets, so it was agreed this needed to be sold in order to raise the revenue required, in addition to the creation of a strong public/private partnership,' Watson said.
Land (such as excess school playing grounds, unused green space and demolition sites) was sold with planning consent by the North Solihull Partnership - a consortium of the Council, Bellway Homes, Inpartnership Ltd and the Whitefriars Housing Group.
The uplift in this sale is sent straight back into the Partnership which directs the funds towards the building and refurbishment of new homes, schools, improved public realms and infrastructure.
The significance of this type of self-sufficiency hasn’t gone unnoticed. In 2007, John Calcutt drew attention to North Solihull’s funding and partnership model in The Review of Housebuilding Delivery.
Calcutt highlighted the 15 year Regeneration Agreement between Inpartnership, the Council and the developers as a prime example of the future of housebuilding, particularly for deprived areas that fail to generate government funding.
The report recommends the formation of such partnerships, with one or more developers, in order to ensure the development viability of previously developed land is fully recognised and exploited, and can then be reflected in local authorities’ five-year housing land supply.
‘The benefits to the local authority are obvious: a more secure five-year land supply, best use of brownfield and minimum demand for greenfield, and reduced costs in assessing site viability, or in defending those assessments in planning appeals,’ it notes.
As a result, the plans, partnership model and funding machines established to regenerate North Solihull are already of interest to a number of other councils and private developers, acting as a pilot for large scale renewal programmes.
Inpartnership itself is also in the early stages of delivering a similar project format in Liverpool, so the results will be closely scrutinised.
'The problem is, we are mounting a regeneration programme for an exiting community - this means rehousing hundreds of residents during the works, reforming their local environment, which could be seen as a challenge to their way of life.
'It’s a complex and contentious situation to be in - we all know the final result will be a vast improvement of the current facilities, but you need to reassure local people the benefits will be worth the wait,' adds Watson.
Almost 1.8 billion will be invested over the lifetime of the programme, catering for some of the most economically, socially and educationally disadvantaged people in England, some 40,000 residents.
With an eye to improve the standard of education and an aim to provide adult education and training facilities, each new primary school has been reinforced with new secondary facilities, colleges and a city academy.
To date, one new primary school has been completed, Kingshurst Primary, with a second project underway.
The Kingfisher School in Smith’s Wood, built on the site of the current school is anticipated to increase student capacity by 40 percent and will become the centrepiece for the first of five new village squares in the programme.
One of the key aims for regenerating North Solihull is to build a strong identity and relationship between the local community, the Housing Association and the Council.
A significant proportion of residents on Solihull’s border to Birmingham are social housing tenants and face an extensive programme of works to renew 12,500 homes and build 8,000 more.
Approximately 20 percent of these new homes will be socially for rent, although there is a real commitment by the Partnership to offer support and opportunities for affordable housing with a range of ‘well-priced’ packages and housing options.
For example, the current residential scheme for North Arran Way, adjoining the Kingfisher School, features a £20 million village centre and three mixed-use residential schemes built on lands provided by the sale of the excess school playing fields.
Each of the five new ‘village greens’ planned will provide the community hubs so lacking in North Solihull, filled with shops, office space, homes and links to public transport.
A new road will link the new high street and market square, 140 new homes, youth and community facilities and a health centre.
But as land is being taken up from ‘valueless’ plots of green space (those left unused and undervalued by local residents), and school sites, how are local residents being appeased by what seems to be a loss of green space?
Watson explains ‘there’s a strong commitment’ to recycling underutilised land, such as green spaces near residential sites that are unsafe and undermaintained, in return for more valued use in regeneration.
'However, the availability of green space came up as a priority for residents in North Solihull, so we aim to make sure those remaining, and new places created are well designed to eliminate anti-social behaviour, are better landscaped and properly maintained,' he assures.
Long-term sustainability is always at the fore of masterplans and phased projects to counter lessons learned. As a result, a new Design Code was created with the help of local stakeholders.
This Design Symposium and community forums held throughout the each phase of regeneration work ensures that, not only are people kept up to date with plans for the area, they have full access and influence over initiatives.
'Regenerating North Solihull is one of the biggest redevelopment programmes in the UK. In order to deliver a project of this scale and complexity, it is essential that the quality of each aspect is consistently high and the design takes into account the bigger picture of long-term sustainability,' adds Janet Bradbury, Chief Executive of the North Solihull Partnership.
The Design Symposium activates local opinion and has helped the Council to engage with the fairly disillusioned younger generations, torn between living in North Solihull, but more commonly identifying with social and cultural opportunities in Birmingham.
In a bid to regain their attention and to give young people a voice, work across the wards are steeped in community engagement events that target those apathetic to what North Solihull has historically had to offer.
'Ownership is extremely important to the children of North Solihull as they watch these changes taking place.
' If children are jumping over fences into construction sites, it’s because the are curious to see what's going on,' suggests Steven Brown, Children and Young Person’s Active Involvement Officer.
He, like Watson, is convinced that meaningful development will be determined by the level of acceptance given to projects by the next generation. Watson adds this has to be extended to educational and vocational initiatives offered to encourage them to stay, respect and grow in the area.
Although the financial model was devolved out of necessity, North Solihull is now riding high on the realisation that the value and long-term sustainability of regeneration can only be realised through local support and investment. It may only be a matter of time that other local authorities follow suit.
