Birmingham City Council has approved more property disposals — from a McDonald’s freehold in Sheldon to city-centre retail blocks and housing land — to fund its recovery plan. We set out what’s being sold, why it matters, and what people in the city centre make of it.
00:00The headline here isn't the golden arches, it's the direction of travel. The council
00:07is offloading assets to hit its recovery targets. That now includes the freehold of the McDonald's
00:12unit at Medway and Garrett's Green Line in Sheldon. Approved for sale to the tenant
00:17company. Alongside that are big apply's, city centre retail blocks and surplus sites
00:23folded into an auction and negotiation pipeline. The case for it is simple, lower risk, instant
00:28receipts, less maintenance. The risk is just as clear. Once it's gone, it's gone. Future
00:33income with it. On New Street, people don't talk in balance sheets. They talk about bins,
00:39roads and bills. Let's get specific. The jewellery quarter, cafe block on Voice Street and Hilton
00:45Street is lined up for disposal. Gazette buildings and court chambers on Corporation Street are
00:50also approved for sale, even as part of the complex inches towards listing. And in the
00:56south-west pool farm phase 1 is moving via a development agreement to allot new homes, including
01:02social rent. Supporters call this pragmatic. Move assets on, let others invest, focus council
01:08cash on core services. The counter is controlled. Once private, public leverage thins out. On
01:14the high street, people are blunt about priorities.
01:17Yeah, I think it could definitely cause issues further down the line by owning less. I think
01:22that's kind of a short-term solution to a bigger problem. That's going to peak because they
01:27went bankrupt. It's a terrible idea. And it's their fault they went bump. So those are my
01:33Mackey's. He's losing money elsewhere because so many people use copies daily.
01:37Mackey's like prime. It's a short-term gain for something that the city might lose in over a long period of time.
01:45Scale this up since last year, the council has been selling through auctions and private deals.
01:50From the wheel site that opened the door to major investment to smaller ground rent plots that chip away at liabilities,
01:57a new disposal schedule adds dozens more surplus sites, with officers estimating receipts in the millions this cycle.
02:05The pitch is best value and quicker transfers. The public test is trust. Are deals transparent,
02:11independently valued and tied to service outcomes, not just a number on a spreadsheet?
02:16In the city centre, people want straight answers, not slogans.
02:20You get the big amounts in the first instance and then you lose out in the long run.
02:25But I don't know whether this be the case. When the Blair government also brought in this idea of, is it PPI?
02:35When they brought in PPI, the hospitals for instance and schools are still paying for that decision all these years later.
02:43And even though some of the stock is crumbling, the fact is they're still paying incredible rents to companies for the maintenance of those places.
Be the first to comment