From Vienna to Stirchley: A week of celebration and learning w/c March 13 2023

“Look out Vienna, here come the Brummies” was how Tom Chance^[1] summed up the excitement generated by the Hope for Housing Conference at Birmingham University in 2018 which launched Birmingham Community Homes (WMUCH’s founder body). Tom predicted^[2] that “were we to return to Birmingham in five years (ten housing ministers later) We’ll find a pipeline in the West Midlands in the thousands”.

Well, Tom was almost spot on about the housing minister body count; 8 since 2018 by my reckoning (including two this week!). Furthermore, the WMUCH pipeline now includes a total of 63 projects aiming to develop a total of 1,354 homes (indeed a total ‘in the thousands’). There are currently 9 advanced ‘gold’^[3] projects, 7 of these  have secured planning permission and are expected to deliver over 100 homes in the next couple of years and 11 ‘silver’ projects with good prospects of delivering 250 homes in the following years. The remainder of the pipeline projects are at an earlier stage but all hold out hope for future housing and WMUCH will continue to support them.

While progress has perhaps been slower than Tom anticipated, with COVID and cuts in the main funding programmes for community led start-ups intervening, the local context is now much more positive than at the aspirational stage of the Hope for Housing Conference. Birmingham Community Homes was rebranded as WMUCH to cover the entire West Midlands Combined Authority area and now has stronger connections across the region through its new board members and advocacy and influencing work. Indeed WMUCH is now administered from Stourbridge Development Trust in Dudley borough, where one of the first ‘gold’ projects is being developed – the Stourbridge Powerhaus. WMUCH is now working closely with local groups and authorities across the conurbation. Meanwhile, links with Birmingham City Council remain strong with a council policy supporting community led housing and an offer of 6 small sites which WMUCH is developing proposals for with community partners. There is now a WMCA Public Land Task Force, and an emerging regional policy^[4] on public land in which the crucial issue of social value in the pricing of disposals is being explored.

This brings me to the ‘Vienna to Stirchley’ focus for WMUCH’s week of celebrations commencing March 13 2023. We are bringing two experts, Ernst Gruber and Richard Lang, back five years on from their inspiring contributions to the ‘Hope for Housing’ Conference. They will help us understand more about what has been achieved in Vienna in securing public land for community led homes (coops and cohousing projects) and the social and environmental outcomes this has resulted in. With similar large scale settlements planned in the West Midlands (like Aspern Seestadt in Vienna) and a common interest in brown field sites (like the Hauptbahnhof area in Vienna) we believe there is still much we can learn and apply here.

So, we are facilitating local meetings with policy makers and planners over two days to share knowledge on what has been achieved in Vienna, how it was achieved and how learning can be applied to the very different context in the West Midlands. We are also holding an evening celebration focusing on our ‘gold’ projects but including earlier stage projects such as the Highlife Centre in Coventry. These exciting projects will contribute to regional aims for more affordable homes, live/work opportunities, environmental sustainability and use of brownfield sites.

The event will provide an opportunity for local groups to share experiences and ask questions about Vienna. It is fitting that we hold the event in Stirchley [NOTE – due to overwhelming demand, we have moved the event to the Priory Rooms Conference Centre in Birmingham], an area with a long cooperative tradition dating back to the nineteenth century^[5] and an exciting project Stirchley Cooperative Development (SCD) recently breaking ground for 39 affordable homes, 3 coop business premises, communal meeting and outdoor spaces in the High Street. ‘Environmental sustainability was the key driver from the start….(and) providing affordable homes – we want to help to solve the housing crisis in Birmingham ’ (SCD)

We hope that our Vienna to Stirchley week will reinforce the inspiration of the 2018 conference, reflect on what we have learned over the five years, discover how the Vienna model has evolved as it has rolled out in two large urban settlements and how land can be effectively harnessed across the West Midlands to bring affordable and sustainable homes and jobs to local communities. Please come and join the celebration and learning (see Programme and Booking details here). Here come the Brummies!

Notes

[1] Chief Executive of Community Land Trust Network

[2] Hope for Housing Conference Report. HCR University of Birmingham. November 2018

[3] The 9‘gold’ projects have a 50- 100% chance of completion, while the 11 ‘silver’ projects have 20%-75% chance. 

[4] WMCA (2020) West Midlands Public Land Charter

[5] dating back to the formation of Ten Acres and Stirchley Coop society (TASCOS) in 1875 which operated as a local coop business for nearly 100 years.