Birmingham estate could become 'green oasis' as residents say 'badly needs redevelopment'

Druids Heath residents say their estate "badly needs redevelopment" as Birmingham City Council looks to decide on a masterplan that would transform the urban estate in a green oasis

Major development plans look set to dramatically transform a "forgotten" and "neglected" city estate and according to Brummies, it's been a long time coming. Druids Heath, an area often described as “forgotten” but with a strong sense of community, could be completely transformed under redevelopment plans.

The estate, recently featured in the Steven Knight drama This Town, will be changed beyond all recognition in the multi-billion pound makeover. An extensive consultation took place this summer and will continue until the full planning applications are decided on next year.

The plans are currently in the proposal stage, and could see 1,800 homes demolished to make way for new apartments and houses. Last week, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited the dilapidated estate, where residents said improvement was much needed, but they needed a "commitment from the council" not to cut services.

READ MORE: I visited 'forgotten' Birmingham estate and I now understand why it is being saved

Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp

Druids Heath councillor Julien Pritchard told reporter Alex Brock that the estate needed support while decisions were made about its future. Giving an insight into life on the estate, Coun Pritchard said: “Things can't just keep getting worse before they might get better.” “A regeneration is about more than just housing - the council needs to commit to keeping services in Druids Heath."

He added that empty tower blocks were attracting vandalism and fly-tipping. “It just adds insult to injury when some of them have been standing empty for over two years,” he said. As approval looks to be sought for 2025, dozens of people commented under our story on the BirminghamLive website, with many sharing their memories of the estate, and some lamenting how it has got to the state it is currently in.

User 'llanfyllin' said: "My nan and aunts lived in Druids Heath in the 70s in those days it was an okay place to live unfortunately it has been allowed to get run down not helped by the Tories being in power last 14 years who have run down everything..."

'Walks with dogs' added that they felt cuts to central funding is the reason for communities becoming run down. The vocal reader said: "Birmingham CC is far from England's least financially stable authority. Nearly 100 other local authorities carry even greater debt burdens. 192 authorities have debts exceeding twice their spending power with 98 of them having worse ratios than BCC."

Adding: "The amount of central funding has been slashed, councils have been made to rely on short term funding making financial management difficult.

"And yet in Westminster no one wants to talk about this problem." Another user, 'notsilentmajority' said that the slashing of council budgets across the board means there is less money in general. He said: "Labour don't actually have a magic money tree, and despite the fact that councils don't have the vast, unnecessary and unaffordable budgets they had become used to, Labour don't have any more money to give them."

Another, perhaps disgruntled reader called 'Davedavedav' said simply: "Birmingham city council's green oasis master plan. Where have we heard this before…." Joining the debate, 'grumps123' said of the estate: "The place is a tip badly needs redevelopment."

What Birmingham City Council has said

Paul Langford, strategic director for city housing, recently said that an important aspect for such regeneration projects was the “meanwhile offer”. “Without doubt, the most challenging thing is how do you keep the estate feeling well,” he told a recent council meeting. “How do you keep it as livable and prosperous as possible during the same time you are essentially demolishing and remodelling the estate.

“The issues there are not just about the physicality - they’re about antisocial behaviour, about fly-tipping. I want to reassure the committee that is very much on our radar.”

The council added that they would bolster services for tenants on the estate by installing more CCTV, starting a specific repairs service for Druids Heath and tackling fly-tipping.