Housing is a key issue for many of our local city councillors. There are thousands of families with small children living in temporary accommodation in Birmingham while waiting on the Housing Register for a home to call their own. This housing crisis was a major consideration for Planning Committee members when they voted to demolish Smallbrook Ringway Centre on September 28.

Plans to replace this elegant, 1960s, 6-storey sweep of building with three tower blocks of 48, 44 and up to 56 storeys are designed to provide a total of 1,632 flats in three phases which could take up to 14 years to complete. Seven votes to six, one vote was all it took to condemn Birmingham’s ‘Regent Street’ to oblivion. We need to understand if this development will help meet the city’s housing need.

22,000 families on Birmingham’s Housing Register are crying out for homes in the city. A development of this size might well go some way towards providing homes for some of these families. But to what extent is this the case? Unpacking the difference between social and affordable housing might bring greater clarity to the situation.

Difference between affordable and social housing

What is the difference between affordable housing and social housing? Social housing is rented from the city’s housing organisation, Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust, or local Housing Associations. It is available to eligible families at up to 50% below commercial rates.

In the main, families on the Housing Register are looking for three- or four-bedroom homes whereas the vast majority of homes available from developments like Smallbrook Ringway Centre are one- and two- bedroom homes. There is no requirement that such developments offer any social housing and only a small proportion of the families on the Housing Register might be in a position to take up an offer of affordable housing in one of these blocks.

According to government guidance, affordable housing for rent usually comes in at something like 20% below the going commercial rate. The West Midlands Combined Authority uses a different, more equitable figure which is based on local people paying no more than 35% of their salary on mortgages or rent. The city has a policy which requires that all new developments of a significant size include the provision of 35% affordable housing.

This is rarely realised because developers can appeal to reduce their commitment on
grounds of financial viability. From an original 0%, a revised figure of 7% of the total number of 1,632 flats in the Smallbrook Ringway Centre development were set aside as affordable. These were primarily one- and two-bedroom flats and therefore unlikely to meet the needs of Brummies on the Housing Register.

Only 4.4% of the flats to be affordable

As we understand it, further negotiations meant that the one- and two- bedroom affordable flats were replaced with three-bedroom affordable flats, a change which also involved a change in the method of calculation. At this stage, smoke and mirrors come to mind and it is hardly surprising that the financial arguments have proved difficult to unpack. The value of the affordable flats became the basis on which the percentage was calculated. Thus 10.5% became the percentage promoted by the developer, although the actual percentage of individual dwellings is 4.4% – albeit of three- rather than one- or two- bedroom flats.

When the application came before the Planning Committee the number of affordable flats had risen to 20%. This included the equivalent of 9.5% affordable housing supported by West Midlands Combined Authority Deeper Devolution Fund for which no application has yet been received. There is no guarantee this subsidy will be made available. Were councillors misled by these figures since the reality may well be very different?

Unsuitable for families

Even if the flats in the tower blocks planned for Smallbrook Ringway Centre were available at social rents, would they be suitable for families? Families need ready access to green spaces, schools, doctors’ surgeries, a whole raft of services and infrastructure that is not accommodated in these plans.

Retaining the existing building might be a useful starting point for an alternative approach. We have some excellent examples of retrofitted buildings in Birmingham, buildings which retain their original design externally but offer exciting new opportunities internally. At last, the wraps have come off the Beneficial Building (1961) on the corner of Paradise Street and Suffolk Street. Revealed is a handsome building repurposed as residential accommodation and retaining its original 1950s style. The Typhoo Tea Factory, a new home for BBC Midlands, will be a jewel in the crown of the regeneration of Digbeth. A similarly exciting approach to Smallbrook Ringway Centre could see Birmingham citizens in residence in no more than a couple of years and, incidentally, a cash-strapped city council in receipt of valuable council tax.

Without the Ringway Centre the area loses all its definition, including what is left of our 1960s heritage of which Birmingham should be proud. To bury this boulevard in multi-storey towers will be to cut off its light – the towers are planned for the south side of the street – and destroy its unique Birmingham personality.

Think more clearly about housing

There is a critical need for clarity about the ways in which the present housing crisis can best be resolved. We need social housing to meet the needs of those on the Housing Register. We need affordable housing for those who cannot at present afford the exorbitant rents that are being demanded for new apartments. Birmingham does not need 14 years of demolition and disruption. Our world does not need the carbon impact of that demolition nor the increased demand on the environment of such extremely tall buildings. The housing needs of Birmingham citizens merit so much more thought and consideration than they are being afforded by the current Smallbrook Ringway Centre plans.

Estelle Dehon KC is acting for Brutiful Birmingham, Birmingham Modernist Society, The Twentieth Century Society and Birmingham’s zero carbon house, who together make up the Save Smallbrook campaign group.

Depending on the outcome of our initial work, we will be launching a crowdfunding campaign to pay her fees.

Why this is happening

In September 2023, Birmingham City Council’s planning committee voted by a one-vote margin to raze the landmark Ringway Centre – a significant example of post-war commercial modernism – in favour of allowing three tower blocks, up to 54 storeys high, to be built on the Smallbrook site. See Full planning application REF 2022/08496/PA

Why this matters – climate change

It’s a move that flies in the face of the city’s commitment to play a leading role in tackling climate change and becoming a net zero carbon city. The carbon emitted through adapting the Ringway Centre to make it into an energy-efficient building (retrofitting) is a fraction of the carbon emitted through demolition and starting again.

We are concerned that insufficient weight has been given to the environmental impact of the planning committee’s decision and have suggested a more eco-friendly form of development. See the Counter proposal for Smallbrook Ringway.

By the developers’ admission, 187,219,000 kg of CO2 would be generated with these tower blocks, which is the same carbon emissions as an average UK car driving the whole way around the world 33,000 times. In our counter proposal, we could create 450 homes for a tiny percentage of that.

Why this matters – Birmingham’s heritage

We are also concerned by the seeming lack of regard for the city’s architectural heritage. The Ringway Centre, which has been described as the Regent Street of Birmingham due to its length and sweeping curve, was designed by Rotunda architect James Roberts (1962).  James Roberts was Birmingham-born and trained at Birmingham School of Art.

His work demonstrates a particular take on Birmingham Modernism and has been described as “frivolous Brutalism”. It has also been categorised as carchitecture as the repetition of the concrete relief and the bullhorn uplighters are designed to be seen from a moving car. The building is locally listed because of its important contribution to the streetscape. The buildings on either side of Smallbrook form the most intact example of post-war design in the city.

Supporters

Our campaign to Save Smallbrook has significant supporters ranging from Brummie historian Carl Chinn to Guardian architecture correspondent Oliver Wainwright to Libby Harris of Birmingham Friends of the Earth. Architects, including Stirling-prize winners Haworth Tompkins, Caruso St John and Niall McLaughlin have also pledged their support.

To see the full list of architects and climate change campaigners who are backing our campaign, see the signatories of the Open Letter to Councillor Ian Ward and West Midlands Mayor Andy Street.

How you can help

Depending on the outcome of our initial actions, we will be asking our supporters for funds to take our campaign to the next stage.

Please email us if you would like to go on our campaign mailing list.

We will be using social media to spread the word so if you could retweet and repost that would be very helpful.

• Twitter: @BrutifulBrum 
•  Facebook: Brutiful Birmingham
• Instagram: @birminghammodernist 

Our hashtag for our campaign is #savesmallbrook. Please use it.

Media coverage

There has been considerable media coverage of the campaign to Save Smallbrook. Here is a selection.

• Building Design: While Sheffield embraces its rich heritage, Birmingham once again shoots itself in the foot
• The Guardian: ‘If the Ringway goes, I’m leaving’ – the fight to save Birmingham’s brutiful masterpieces
• Birmingham Post: Democracy demolished as objections hit a brick wall (JPEG)
• Private Eye: Nooks and Corners (JPEG)
• Twentieth Century Society   
• Architects Journal 
• Building Design
• Birmingham Live: Battle over brutalist buildings in Birmingham as open letter sent to council
• Birmingham Live: Ringway Centre development will bring ‘bland and overbearing mass’ to Birmingham city centre

It’s viewable by going to Birmingham City Council’s planning application portal. Add the reference 2022/08496/PA; click on the application number; click on View Associated Documents; select Whole Life Carbon Assessment.

Supporters can help the campaign by writing a letter of objection about matters raised in the report. Click on the button below to download a template (Word). Send the letter to planningandregenerationenquiries@birmingham.gov.uk using the planning application reference REF 2022/08496/PA.

Please do this by Monday 7 August if possible. (It’s still worth doing if you can’t make that deadline.)

Related information

• Details of the Save Smallbrook Queensway campaign
• Fate of Birmingham landmark as crucial as M&S Oxford St, say campaigners (Architects Journal)
• Marks & Spencer’s Oxford Street flagship saved from demolition in “huge victory for heritage” (Dezeen)

Retrofit Balsall Heath has a vision to cut people’s fuel bills AND make homes warmer. We would love to share with you what we have achieved in one year alone. 

Open Day Friday 30th June 2-6pm

Supper and Speaker Event 6-9pm

Zero Carbon House, 103 Tindal St, Balsall Heath, B12 9QU and other venues

We warmly invite you to a celebration open day followed by a free community supper and talks from a panel of incredible pioneering speakers. All free, all welcome.

Speakers

Rupert Read

Rupert is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion and co-director of the new Climate Majority Project. He authored several books, including This Civilisation is Finished, Parents for a Future and Why Climate Breakdown Matters and has been many times on the Today programme, Question Time, Newsnight, Politics Live, Al Jazeera, and more.

The Climate Majority Project launches on 29 June, the day before our event, so his talk will be very topical. The Climate Majority Project’s open letter “Time’s Up” is signed by several people with links here, Fazlun Khalid (founder, IFEES Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences), Kate Raworth (author, ‘Doughnut Economics’), as well as well-known people including Chris Packham (BBC presenter), Mike Berners-Lee (author, ’There is no planet B’).

Sara Edmonds

Sara is an architect and activist, Head of Citizen Engagement at Built Environment – Smarter Transformation, whose mission is to accelerate the built environment’s transition to zero carbon emissions. She is director of Studio seARCH, a consultancy that advocates for systemic change around low carbon domestic retrofit and co-founded Home Energy Action Lab (HEAL), a framework test bed for community based domestic retrofit services. She also hosts the Accelerate to Zero Podcast. For the last 3 years she has been a coordinator at the Architects Climate Action Network, an organisation formed to empower individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown. 

Sara has just been appointed Co-Director of the National Retrofit Hub.  This is a new non-profit programme, hosted by the Sustainable Development Foundation, working collaboratively across the retrofit sector. The Hub launched on 1 March, 2023, to enable the local delivery of UK housing retrofit at scale.

Kamran Shezad

Kamran is based at the Bahu Trust in Balsall Heath.  He’s a qualified environmental professional with practical field and managerial experience in the sustainable development sector. He is a strong advocate of using faith-inspired approaches in promoting the message of environment and guiding behavioural change. Kamran is a grassroots environmental activist and social justice campaigner, he has worked with a diverse range of community and faith groups and has produced toolkits, practical guides and mobilised communities for climate action.

Kamran holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Sustainability (Strategy & Management), he has been awarded Chartered Environmentalist status by the Society for the Environment and is a full member of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment. Kamran served on the Civil Society & Youth Advisory Council to the Presidency of COP26, he is an advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and has recently been appointed to the Multi-Faith Advisory Council to the United Nations Interagency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development (UN IATF). Twitter: @climatekam 

Travel

Please try not to travel by car. If you can, please use public transport – for zerocarbonhouse and Al Abbas Islamic Centre, the number 50 bus stops at junction with Clifton Rd on Moseley Rd/A435, 20 mins ride out of Birmingham City Centre; for Saheli Hub, the number 45 or 49 bus stops at the junction with Edward Rd on Pershore Rd/A41 – or use active transport: walk or cycle.

All events will be free, and all are welcome! 

The Birmingham Post has published a robustly argued piece by Mary Keating: “Democracy demolished as objections hit a brick wall.”

Mary, who represents Brutiful Birmingham, has exposed how the campaign to save Smallbrook Queensway has not even had the opportunity to present a counter-proposal to the plans to demolish the 60s Brutalist building. This is despite the counter-proposal being endorsed by the winners of the Stirling prize, a prestigious architectural award, and expert scrutiny of the carbon implications of the development.

Meanwhile, the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, is to meet the developers, Dooba Investments II Ltd, who are proposing the demolition of the heritage building to make way for a residential-led, mixed-use development of glass towers.

Download: Birmingham Post: Democracy demolished as objections hit a brick wall (JPEG)

Private Eye has also reported on the campaign. They say that the Save Smallbrook Queensway campaign has demonstrated that a profitable scheme for 450 homes could be achieved without trashing Birmingham’s history.

Download: Private Eye: Nooks and Corners (JPEG)

Sign our petition

Please add your name to our petition to Preserve Smallbrook Queensway’s 1960s style.

Previous media coverage of the campaign

• Twentieth Century Society   

• Architects Journal 

• Building Design

• Birmingham Live: Battle over brutalist buildings in Birmingham as open letter sent to council

• Birmingham Live: Ringway Centre development will bring ‘bland and overbearing mass’ to Birmingham city centre

• To hear the programme on iPlayer go to: BBC Open Country Visions of Birmingham. The feature on zero carbon house begins 9 minutes and 27 seconds into the podcast.