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Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has earned the 2026 Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce President\u2019s Award for helping to \u201creshape how the world sees Birmingham\u201d.<\/p>\n
President Andy Dawson (pictured)<\/strong> told 1,000 attendees at the GBCC\u2019s awards dinner last night: \u201cWherever I travel in the world, whenever I tell a taxi driver that I\u2019m from Birmingham, the response is always the same: \u2018Peaky Blinders.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cTonight, we recognise a man whose storytelling has carried the spirit of Birmingham onto the global stage.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom Small Heath to Hollywood, Steven Knight has never forgotten his roots.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has helped to reshape how the world sees Birmingham: a city of grit, talent, creativity, and opportunity. His work inspires millions.\u201d<\/p>\n Knight, the Birmingham-born screenwriter, producer and director, brought global attention to his home city \u2013 with historical crime drama Peaky Blinders going on to be a worldwide success after first airing in 2013.<\/p>\n He brought the story back to its roots this year when a glittering film premiere of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man was held at the Symphony Hall.<\/p>\n Much of the movie was filmed on the streets of Birmingham and at Knight\u2019s Digbeth Loc Studios in Digbeth.<\/p>\n Andy Dawson added: \u201cEarlier this year, Birmingham took centre stage again with the Netflix premiere of The Immortal Man at Symphony Hall.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now he [Steven Knight] is busy writing the next James Bond film.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is my privilege to present Steven with the President\u2019s Award in recognition of his outstanding work and commitment to championing the city.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, being the busy man that he is, he could not make tonight, so I look forward to presenting him with his award in person, when I next see him.\u201d<\/p>\n The GBCC president also issued rallying call to business leaders to support young people.<\/p>\n He highlighted the challenges facing young people in the region and urged businesses to do more to facilitate opportunities.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWhile this city is full of talent, too many young people are still struggling to find opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that should concern every single one of us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe live in one of the youngest and most diverse cities in Europe. Our young people are our future.<\/p>\n \u201cYet across this region, youth unemployment remains a real and constant challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cThe simple and uncomfortable truth is talent is everywhere – opportunity is not.<\/p>\n \u201cI built my career in a different era. There were milk rounds, graduate schemes, predictable career pathways into work.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s generation faces a different reality – economic uncertainty, intense competition, and now the rapid disruption of AI in the workplace.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, many young people are asking themselves: \u2018Where do they even fit in?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cNot because they lack the motivation or the ability to perform at their best, it\u2019s because they aren\u2019t given the opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we make it harder. We ask for experience before giving people the opportunity to gain it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe rely heavily on networks and rooms that not everyone has access to.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is not just a social issue. It\u2019s a leadership issue.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause great leadership isn\u2019t just about delivering business results. It is also about creating opportunities for others, especially young people.<\/p>\n \u201cSo tonight, my challenge to every leader in this room is simple. What is one opportunity you could create for a young person next week, that they would not be able to access themselves?<\/p>\n \u201cBecause if every person in this room consistently opened the door of opportunity, we would not just change individual lives, we would change the trajectory of this region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has earned the 2026 Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce President\u2019s Award for helping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":961092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-961091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116577499434192566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961091","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=961091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}