Summary
Birmingham City Council are working with a luxury developer called St Joseph – Berkeley Group to regenerate an area of Ladywood, Birmingham, UK. The council documents suggest demolishing buildings and building new homes, green spaces, businesses, schools, and community centres. There are nearly 2,000 homes that remain at risk of demolition, affecting over 5,000 people.
Many people are not happy about the proposals for several reasons. Those affected weren’t consulted early on about the plans. There are currently no plans to build any social housing. If homes, businesses, schools, and churches are knocked down, experience from other UK regenerations suggests that only market value and some disturbance compensation will be paid. For many, this would not be enough to afford to stay in the area. The negative consequences of demolition for the environment from waste and pollution are concerning, too. Local people are frequently ignored or belittled by council staff and elected officials.
Surprisingly, there are freehold houses and good quality council and social homes inside the regeneration zone, along with several churches and schools. The council plans suggest knocking homes and churches down and replacing them with housing for other people and secular community spaces. When people buy properties inside the regeneration zone, the plans do not come up in searches and this appears to be legal although we have complained about it.
In May 2025 the council signed a developer agreement with Berkeley Group and they set up a consultation website to work with local residents: https://www.ladywoodcommunity.co.uk/
Announcement
On 19 June 2023, Cllrs Albert Bore and Kath Hartley wrote to residents stating that St. Joseph was being recommended as a redevelopment partner for the regeneration of central Ladywood.
Like the other communications they sent in 2019, this letter did not explicitly state that they planned to demolish existing homes. Some of the 2019 leaflets discussed refurbishing existing properties and constructing new homes, but there was no mention of demolitions.
The letter from Cllrs Bore and Hartley included the Birmingham City Council logo and the St Joseph logo. We can presume that the councillors were therefore writing to their constituents as representatives of the council and the developer, on the council’s and developer’s behalf.
At the city council meeting where Councillor Cotton approved proposals to issue a compulsory purchase order in principle, Ladywood Councillors Bore and Hartley provided no objection or thoughts from residents. Instead, another Councillor Harmer spoke to ask about what residents thought about the plans.
Initially, the following information was provided in summer 2023:
- There is a map showing which phase each street is in. This information was not included in the letters sent to residents; many residents have only discovered their phase by asking their neighbours.
- There is also a general provisional timeline for the development (page 26/section F1 of the full business case). So far, neither the developer nor the council have provided this in writing to residents.
- We have not been told exactly when the next consultation will be (some meetings might be taking place in September), nor what form it will take. Residents turned away from the ward forum meeting on 20 July were told that there would be another meeting on Wednesday 26 July, but this was cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice, with the cancellation only being announced via mailing lists and websites that many residents would not regularly check; some residents turned up without knowing that this had been cancelled.
- Although the council and developer gave partial answers to some questions about potential rehousing policies at the meeting on 20 July, many details have not yet been clarified nor confirmed in writing, and, as far as we are aware, no frequently-asked-questions or equivalent documentation has been provided on the council’s website for those excluded from the meeting (please correct us below if this has now changed!). The initial letter pointed residents to the Central Birmingham Framework page, but as of 29 July, this page had not been updated since 25 May, and it does not include any of the more detailed information the council now has.
As of 2024, the council has now written to residents to provide more information. There is still great concern over the lack of proposed social and truly affordable housing, resident power and compensation, and environmental consequences of mass demolition. The plans do not come up in searches because there is no planning application yet, which means that new buyers are still purchasing properties in the area without knowing about the regeneration.
Developer website
In May 2025 the developer started to provide information to residents on their website: https://www.ladywoodcommunity.co.uk/
Council’s timeline
You can read about what the council is proposing here. Their timeline from 2024 is below.
Ladywood Unite 