Balsall Heath: The Start of a Positive Story.

?As my time at The Old Print Works has drawn to a close I wanted to reflect on what the last 5 years has meant for Balsall Heath and to be thankful for my small role.

?It may be uncoordinated, it may be a slow process but slowly over recent time I have seen public agencies starting to invest in the core of Balsall Heath. The four heritage buildings at the heart of the town centre; namely Moseley Road Baths and Balsall Heath Library, Moseley Community Hub (the ex School of Art building) and The Old Print Works have all received investment of one sort or another). This has been the result of a lot of hard usually unpaid work by a range of committed volunteers. ?This zeal and effort has the real potential to show the worth for Balsall Heath and elsewhere of a social enterprise approach to regeneration that leans heavily on the role of culture in its widest sense to bring benefits to local people. ?My role has been focused on The Old Print Works where for the majority of the last 5 years I volunteered in an operational as well as a Trustee role.

Investments so Far

Moseley Road Baths; run by a consortium involving The Council, Moseley Road Baths CIO, The National Trust, Friends of Moseley Road Baths and Historic England have managed in recent years to access significant resources; to help the baths turn the corner. They were awarded ￡707,000 from Historic England in part of a ￡1m package of works to repair the Gala Pool roof. These works were finished in February 2020 are described here. The aim is to maintain swimming but as well introduce other uses to make it a much more rounded facility.

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The ex Moseley School of Art building has been completely refurbished in recent years with the help of a grant of ￡1.7m from Heritage Lottery funds with a further ￡243k from Historic England. This opened as Moseley Community Hub in May 2019 and has a range of creative and other occupiers including the Arts Council funded acclaimed Ort Gallery.

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The Old Print Works, a hub for a wide range creative uses was awarded ￡162k from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP (GBSLEP). This was quite an achievement for the OPW team as almost 5 years ago the building was near to closure and it suffered from a lack of credibility. During the following years we managed to triple turnover and get many more creative people in the building. This grant paid for essential safety works as well as investment in expanding the Transfer Co-working space, providing a business friendly space for medium sized workshops and presentations and bringing forward 5 extra creative studios for letting.?Despite the pandemic occupancy levels in the building have remained buoyant and the units provided by the grant have largely been snapped up.

?Recently GBSLEP have given further support to the area. It recently approved a ￡45k bid led by Ort Gallery for a Cultural Action Zone. Cultural Action Zones are a welcome innovative approach from the LEP that encourages organisations to work together for the betterment of the area. The Balsall Heath CAZ involves 6 organisations in the area and will see coordinated cultural actions and events on the Second Saturday of every month for 6 months, modelled on the first Friday approach in Digbeth. The aim is to make the Saturdays more of a family affair largely focusing on day time activity. Further details can be found here. The resources are small but just enough to get that joint working going and to have a real hopefully long term effect.

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What about the Future

Whilst works to Moseley Community Hub are largely finished the other buildings still have a need for further support. The investments above are but a start. The Council has recently put a bid of ￡14m into the ‘Levelling Up Fund’ for Moseley Road Baths and Library and there is as a ￡1m bid for Heritage Lottery Development funding already submitted. This could lead to an extra ￡5.3m grant.?Details of these bids can be found in BCC’s Cabinet papers here. At my time of leaving The Old Print Works discussions were happening about a possible further grant from GBSLEP. So given the energy of the organisations involved, the Heritage of the area and the potential for a creative and cultural nexus it is likely the area will get more money in the future. It has certainly turned the corner.

?Further Thoughts

Balsall Heath has been synonymous with disadvantage for too long. Whilst this investment in the buildings is to be welcomed and the social enterprise model approach to regeneration which limits the scope for gentrification is also to be welcomed the real test of this investment is how well does it ‘level up’ the area.

?No one is currently measuring the overall impact of these investments and with the collapse of local governance brought on by austerity no one probably will. Research from the Creative Industries Policies and Evidence Centre (PEC) supported by NESTA has shown the effects of investing in the Creative sector. The research which was led by CityRedi and the University of Birmingham has shown that for every job generated in the creative economy almost 2 other jobs are created.?Hopefully therefore this range of investments which broadly sit within the Creative and Cultural sphere will have positive impacts.

?The question will be how much will local people and businesses benefit from it. Will these buildings truly benefit the hyper local area or will it become a cultural island detached from its hinterland benefiting those in Moseley, Kings Heath and Digbeth.?It was recognised before I left OPW that we needed to do much more to make us part of the community and actions are underway. Only time will tell the answer to this question.

?As for oversight and a local focus there is a potential for a greater Balsall Heath voice. The Council is about to consult on the idea of a Neighbourhood Council (Parish Council) with local people getting a vote. This may provide the focus for oversight of these and other investments and will if approved be a voice for Balsall Heath in any planning discussions. For so long the innovative Neighbourhood Plan has not had a local voice championing its ideas and this may be a start to a more cohesive approach to investments but it is way too early to be clear about this and its potential role. ?

?My role in this has been small and supportive and the improvements will continue I am sure without my input although I will be watching and be a champion from afar. I am looking for other challenges like this so please take a look at my Linkedin profile and if you think there is something I can help on short term initially do email me on [email protected]. Payment is not my first consideration.

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