New areas of focus

HS2 will position Birmingham as a major connectivity hub, cutting travel time to London to just 49 minutes and adding thousands of extra rail seats daily. This improved accessibility is expected to boost the West Midlands economy by £10 billion over the next decade, driving regeneration and investment.

The impact can already be seen; office rents around the station have risen by 23% in the last four years to £27 per sq ft in 2025, showing the increased demand from commercial occupiers wanting to be near to this hub. And plans for further development will be transformative for Birmingham’s Eastside and the area around the Interchange station, with 41,000 new homes, 30,835 jobs, and 7 million sq ft of commercial floorspace planned within 1.5 miles of the two stations. Planning applications in the area have surged 66%, and project values have tripled to £15.4 billion.

The West Midlands Rail Hub complements HS2 by doubling regional rail capacity, improving links between Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and HS2 stations. It will unlock £2 billion in economic benefits and accelerate growth in advanced manufacturing, logistics and professional services - creating a well-connected region, that could overcome the agglomeration challenges the city currently faces.

An extended city centre

The wider Eastside area is also growing more attractive, with the former industrial district of Digbeth now forming a thriving creative hub. Its historic warehouses have been repurposed into studios, bars and cultural venues, attracting media and tech firms and driving increases in demand for space well beyond the reach of HS2. This is evidenced by office rents across Digbeth rising by 17% in the last four years to £23 per sq ft.

The provision of high quality office space is crucial in drawing these growing firms to the Eastside. The relocation of the BBC to a new headquarters at the former Typhoo Tea factory provides an anchor tenant and signals confidence in the area’s creative economy, reinforcing Birmingham’s role as a national media centre. Adding to this media cluster, MasterChef - one of the BBC’s flagship shows - will be filmed at the new Digbeth studios, bringing national attention and further cementing the district’s reputation as a creative powerhouse.

Adjacent to Digbeth lies the Knowledge Quarter, a cluster of education and research institutions anchored by Birmingham City University and Aston University. This district has evolved into a centre for learning, technology, and enterprise, fostering collaboration between academia and industry. Bruntwood SciTech has also established a significant presence here, reinforcing Birmingham’s potential as a leading hub for science, technology, and innovation. Its proximity to HS2 and the city’s innovation assets makes it a strategic location for knowledge-based growth.

Regeneration on this scale must include a diversity of land use, something which the Smithfield redevelopment is at the forefront of in Digbeth. It is set to become one of Birmingham’s most significant mixed use districts, delivering more than 3,000 new homes and around 1.5 million sq ft of commercial and workspace as part of a £1.9 billion transformation. Its location provides the crucial hinge between the traditional retail core to the west and the emerging knowledge and creative economy to the east, and is expected to generate over 8,000 jobs once complete.

Crucially, these schemes are knitting together the east side of the city, linking Digbeth’s creative quarter, the Knowledge Quarter’s academic cluster, and Smithfield’s mixed-use neighbourhood into a connected urban fabric. Together, they form a cohesive extension of Birmingham’s centre, signalling a new era for the city, yet returning to its roots.

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