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\n Former West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has said there are still many reasons to be optimistic about Birmingham\u2019s future despite recent turmoil \u2018crippling\u2019 the city\u2019s reputation.\n <\/p>\n
Brum has, in recent years, experienced turbulence in the form of a financial crisis at the city council and an ongoing bins strike, which recently dragged\u00a0\u00a0on into its second year.<\/p>\n
Councillor John Cotton, the leader of the Labour-run council, described Birmingham as an \u2018investment powerhouse\u2019 and suggested better days were ahead despite such challenges.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s been deep anger from opposition councillors and many have suggested that the city\u2019s reputation had taken a hammering \u2013 with one even arguing that Birmingham had been turned into a \u2018cesspit\u2019.<\/p>\n
Asked about these two visions of how Birmingham is being perceived earlier this week, former Conservative Mayor Andy Street suggested both could be true.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the great irony of the place,\u201d he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, adding that Birmingham boasted \u201cincredible\u201d investment numbers during his time as Mayor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s also true that the bankruptcy of the council, and the ongoing bins strike, has really, really crippled Birmingham\u2019s reputation,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou talk to investors anywhere in the world, they will ask you about those things.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou talk to news presenters, comedians, anybody \u2013 they talk about those aspects of Birmingham\u2019s reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Street, who was mayor of the region for seven years before he was ousted by Labour\u2019s Richard Parker back in 2024, continued that Brum still has huge potential however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economic fundamentals and potential of this city are still there and my view is that it needs new leadership to really drive that forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is true that the economic potential and investment stats are very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid recent \u2018disappointment\u2019 with the Labour government and the \u2018rise of Reform\u2019 on the right, Mr Street has joined forces with other Tory figures to launch Prosper UK \u2013 a centre-right group to entice voters back to the Conservative Party.<\/p>\n
The former Mayor was in Birmingham on Monday to meet with supporters and businesses, with those in this new movement wanting to prioritise \u2018enterprise and growth\u2019.<\/p>\n
Asked about major planned developments in the city centre such as HS2, the Sports Quarter and Smithfield, Mr Street said: \u201cAll of these things are absolutely mission critical to the brand of Birmingham.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about opportunities for our young citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusinesses that came to relocate here, a number of them did so on the back of the HS2 commitment actually.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the Sports Quarter is going to regenerate that part of east Birmingham and when I was Mayor, I was very keen that with Tom Wagner the deal was done for the land for the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s a whole list of really outstanding investment opportunities here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many things to be optimistic about,\u201d he added. \u201cBut it\u2019s completely\u00a0shrouded by this current reputation of Birmingham, which needs solving as quickly as possible after the elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour council leader John Cotton was questioned earlier this month about Birmingham\u2019s reputation and said: \u201cAs someone who\u2019s a proud Brummie, born and bred, I think we\u2019ve got a responsibility to always talk this place up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you don\u2019t want to do is damage the kind of business confidence that is leading to the record levels of investment coming into the city, that\u2019s driving economic growth in some of the biggest growth sectors in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether that\u2019s life sciences, advance manufacturing, the creative sector \u2013 which of course we\u2019re celebrating with the Peaky Blinders launch.\u201d<\/p>\n
On whether Brummies in more left-behind communities were feeling the benefits of such investment, he acknowledged there is a \u201ctale of two cities\u201d in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is unacceptable,\u201d he said. \u201cToo many people still are left behind when it comes to being able to access the jobs and opportunities that are growing in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have too many children growing up in poverty, we still have a gap in life expectancy that\u2019s too wide between the richest and poorest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to fix.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so important, having turned around the finances of the council, we\u2019re now in a position to work with the Mayor, government, business and communities to break down those barriers so everybody can participate and thrive in what I still absolutely believe is the greatest city in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Birmingham-specific issues, such as the equal pay debacle and the disastrous implementation of an IT system, were among the factors that contributed to the financial crisis at the council.<\/p>\n
Labour councillors have also repeatedly highlighted funding cuts during the previous Conservative government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has said there are still many reasons to be optimistic about Birmingham\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[22440,22441,855,9163,22439,748,9444,1354,393,9453,4884,14987,269,12,3669,9440,93,16823,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-834886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-102-5","9":"tag-102-5-fm","10":"tag-birmingham","11":"tag-black-country","12":"tag-brierley-hill","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-dab","15":"tag-dudley","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-fm","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-halesowen","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-online","23":"tag-radio","24":"tag-sport","25":"tag-stourbridge","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116252462926196565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}