Press Release

A decision as to the future of the Colmore Business District gets closer this week as all eligible voters in the BID area receive their ballot papers. Following a build up period in which the objectives for the BID have been developed and consultation with eligible firms and property owners has taken place the ballot papers will be distributed this week. Eligible voters will have until 5.00pm on February 27th to cast their vote.

As Birmingham prepares for the opening of its permanent Administrative Court in the spring of this year, Birmingham Forward is staging the fourth and final seminar in its series to inform the business community on how the Court will work. In the final seminar the focus will be planning and environmental law and how the Administration Court will impact on cases. The event will explore the practical workings of the Court, related procedures and when statutory challenges and judicial reviews should be undertaken.

Members of both Birmingham Forward, the organisation representing professional service firms in the city and Birmingham Future, the body made up of young professionals, have been asked to take part in an e- survey on transport. With the decision to trial road charging in Manchester about to be announced, Forward and Future asked members if they thought it inevitable or necessary to introduce road charging in Birmingham in the future.

PwC played host to the launch of the Prospectus for the Colmore Business District BID last night. Representatives of the firms eligible to vote in the BID ballot which will be held during January and February 2009, heard from Sue Lewis of Eversheds, BID Champion Gary Cardin from Drivers Jonas and Jonathan Cheetham and Jenny Inglis of Birmingham City Centre Partnership. Clive Dutton, Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council was also in attendance to further demonstrate the City's support of the BID.

Birmingham Forward is continuing with its series of seminars under the theme "Making it Happen!" in preparation of the opening of Birmingham's permanent Administration Court in the spring of next year. The latest seminar will take place on December 4th at Eversheds in Colmore Row commencing at 8.00am and will focus on legal issues around immigration and asylum and how cases will be handled within the new court. Presentations will be made detailing how immigration and asylum laws also impact on family and community care law and how challenges in the Administrative Court will work.

It has been a long and sometimes challenging journey but Birmingham is now entering the final stages of its preparation to open a permanent Administrative Court in the city. Birmingham Forward, with its partners St. Philips Chambers, No.5 Chambers, Birmingham Law Society and Deloitte have been activity lobbying the Judiciary and Government to change the way regional High Court justice is conducted for over three years.

The Director of leading thinktank Centre for Cities, Dermot Finch, will today explore how Birmingham will cope as the UK enters its first recession in fifteen years. He will also discuss how jobs, training, transport and new housing would be better delivered across the city region. He is expected to say that: "the Birmingham city-region would tap into more international trade and investment if it traded under a more compelling brand like Greater Birmingham."

Jeff Randall, one of the country's leading business journalists, will be the main speaker at this year's Birmingham Forward Chairman's Gala Dinner. This year's event, which is one of the highlights of the city's business calendar, will take place on Friday, 21st November in Hall Four of the International Convention Centre, Birmingham. This year's main event sponsor is Kleinwort Benson, recently voted Best Private Bank of 2008.

With the Bank of England due to announce its monthly decision on interest rates this Thursday following the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, perhaps one of the most important decisions it has taken in recent times, Birmingham Forward and Future has been polling members on the subject. Members were asked to vote via an e poll on its website on the following proposition.

Birmingham Forward has invited the director of the thinktank, Centre for Cities, Dermot Finch, to the city in October to address its members. Sponsored by property developer and investor, Calthorpe Estates, the event which is part of the organisation's Keynote Lunch series, will take place in the Vista Suite at the newly refurbished Crowne Plaza Hotel on Thursday 23 October.