Taking Our City Investment Plans Forward

As is so often the case these days, we met online via Zoom, to discuss everything.  Though, it's never quite the same as being in person, we had a fantastic meeting.  Everyone got fully involved and we had some very interesting and in-depth discussions around the plans themselves and the wider issues.  

It's really heartening to see the amount of time, effort and raw enthusiasm that has gone into producing these plans - and even more impressive that they're written so beautifully, when English isn't the first language of our colleagues writing them - with the exception of Birmingham of course. 

All 3 Investment Plans (and Birmingham's Springboard Plan) follow a similar structure - focusing on the overall ambition for the plan; context of the city; national policy and funding context; regional environment; local context - and then the real specifics, with all the cities generally focusing on key suburbs and projects within the wider city. 

We're going to be saying a lot more on these plans going forward, but at the moment, they are just drafts.  Following the meeting on Tuesday, we're taking into account everything discussed and will go back to amend the plans, so we can discuss the second draft with the central team at Urbact.  

On behalf of Birmingham, we would like to say a big Thank You to all our partner cities for your amazing work to date - and to everyone who made Tuesday's meeting so enjoyable and interesting to be part of.