Benefits to your community

The regeneration of Perry Barr is about much more than improvements to infrastructure; it is about delivering benefits for the community and enhancing social value in the region.

As part of the redevelopment, our partners - contractors McLaughlin & Harvey - have delivered a Social Value Action Plan.

This included creating 30 new jobs for the local community, supporting local business through a buy local pledge, engaging with local schools and delivering 'You Matter Communities' to support local organisations.

Throughout the construction all efforts were made to create a carbon neutral environment by using renewable energy, reduced emissions and carbon offset funding for ecological initiatives.

A report summarising how the council’s purchasing power has benefitted the local economy and good causes has been published by McLaughlin & Harvey.

Opportunities created

A wide range of exciting educational, environmental and other community projects have been created as part of this development.

You Matter Communities, run by our principal contractor McLaughlin and Harvey, focused on strengthening communities by providing resources, such as volunteer time, small grants and donated materials to support community-led solutions to local challenges. This initiative offered community organisations access to resources through:

  1. You Matter TimeBank, which offered support from the contractor team, during the stadium construction works, for local third sector and community organisations. Volunteer time can be used to give real practical support to organisations and individuals who need it.
  2. You Matter ResourceBank, which focused on avoiding waste and protecting the environment. The ResourceBank offered community projects free access to unused materials from the construction at Alexander Stadium. Throughout the project community groups could collect materials including off-cuts, over-ordered and salvaged materials.
  3. You Matter Community Fund, which focused on people coming together and working on local challenges. This Community Fund offered small grants up to £1,000, to community groups and organisations who wanted to make a difference locally.

Below is a video summarising the way in which You Matter has benefitted local communities during the first 12 months of the redevelopment project:

Projects to have benefits from You Matter Communities include:

  1. Feed my Creative CIC – Engage with vulnerable young men and women in Birmingham to design and create textile objects. The grant supported textile sessions working with different materials and sewing and soldering to create Bluetooth speakers.
  2. Priestley Smith School – Support students with physical disabilities and special educational needs to develop their skills and learn about nature and the environment. The grant supported their outdoor classroom at a local allotment with raised beds, topsoil and specialist gardening tools.
  3. You[th] Against Poverty CIC – Led by students of South and City College Birmingham, the grant helped them to make survival kits and put on a Christmas Party for Birmingham’s street homeless community.
  4. Westley Vale Millennium Green Trust – A community organisation run by local people to look after the open space. The grant allowed them to receive training, buy new equipment and wildflower seeds to sow a wildflower meadow ready for Spring 2021.
  5. Walsall Road Allotments – A TimeBank project which involved nine members of the Alexander Stadium Redevelopment project team who donated 50 hours of volunteer time over 4 days to upgrade a road at Walsall Road Allotments used by The Open Doors project.

The first round of awards saw a combined total of almost £15,000 awarded to good causes in the city.

The second round of You Matter Communities scheme, which launched in January 2021, supported a range of organisations with 15 grants of up to £1,000 and 5 organisations with volunteer time. A third and final round of the scheme, which launched in August 2021, saw a further ten grants worth a combined total of almost £10,000 awarded to community groups.

A report summarising how the council’s purchasing power has benefitted the local economy and good causes has been published by McLaughlin & Harvey.

The video below features case studies.

Below is a video produced in March 2022 which showcases how the project is continuing to benefit the local economy:

Creating a better environment

Birmingham City Council is working with its partners to create a cleaner, greener and more attractive environment for all. Whether working with schools and workplaces to provide training, or creating a more sustainable environment, we know this is key for any community. Within the Perry Barr Regeneration programme, we committed to creating an improved environment for our residents and, alongside our key partners, developed key initiatives such as community benches and Community Monitors.


Page last updated: 10 April 2024

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