Smithfield Birmingham plans to be updated

Our planning news is published in association with The Planner, the official magazine of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Lendlease has updated the designs for Smithfield Birmingham, a project that aims to deliver more than 3,000 new homes and create 9,000 jobs. 

Views from the public are sought on the designs for the 17-hectare development before an updated planning application is submitted to Birmingham City Council. 

The designs have been changed to address an objection from Historic England to the planning application and respond to changes as a result of the Building Safety Act 2022. 

A market has operated at Smithfield for more than 800 years, with the revised plans still providing a new home for the city’s historic Bull Ring markets. Lendlease said the project is intended to create a sustainable, green, and inclusive place with people at the heart of a development that is zero-carbon.   

Changes to the designs include:   

• The markets have been split into two plots with one plot consisting of an indoor market, dining hall, restaurant and event space; while the second plot will home the open and rag market. The new location has been designed to avoid building over the buried archaeology of the moat and manor house while retaining their historic location close to St Martin’s Church. 

• Festival Square, now called ‘Manor Square’, has been relocated to sit above the buried moat and manor house to celebrate the importance of the site as the birthplace of Birmingham.   
• Culture and music facilities will now be located in one building instead of separate buildings, on the southern corner of Manor Square. 
• The footprint and height of some of the residential buildings have changed to address upcoming changes to the Building Safety Act.   
• Colin Murphy, project lead on Smithfield Birmingham for Lendlease, said the views of local communities in Birmingham are “essential as we look to take this scheme forward”. 

More information can be found on the Smithfield Birmingham website. 

30 October 2023 
Laura Edgar, The Planner