Name: Val Birchall
Organisation: BCC
Contact details:
Local Growth Fund Proforma
Narrative required
Project Title
Outline project
details
Creative City – Digital Digbeth Studios
The creation of a new facility for globally competitive TV & Digital media production to generate jobs and economic
activity and stimulate business creation. The studios will attract inward investment through increased commissioning and
production in the region. This facility will enable globally competitive media products to be made in Birmingham again. It
will create a home for what has become an itinerant workforce of midlands based TV professionals following the closure
of facilities and commissioning by the BBC and ITV. Digbeth Digital Studios will provide opportunity for the wealth and
talent from the region’s schools, academies, colleges and universities.

Digbeth Digital Studios will create250 direct jobs in TV production andrelated industries, and a large number of
indirect jobs from lighting and props services to accountancy and catering.

Digbeth Digital Studios will stimulate the creation of businesses to provide services to TV, Film and Digital
production.

Digbeth Digital Studios will make locating in Birmingham’s creative quarter a badge of honour for producers of
programming and video content.

Digbeth Digital Studios will build on the expertise and strength in TV productionand digital enterprise that
exists in the region.

Digbeth Digital Studios will provide opportunity for the wealth of talent from the regions schools, academies,
colleges and universities.

Digbeth Digital Studios will provide a home for what became a largely itinerant community of TV professionals
Potential impact &
outcomes
Name: Val Birchall
Organisation: BCC
Contact details:
when the core of the local industry was removed by the BBC in 2011. This working community of talented and
highly skilled professionals is likely to desert the region over time if the local industry has no home.
Links to other
Government
Programmes and
impacts/outcomes
Overall project costs
(£)

Digbeth Digital Studios will stimulate innovation. Increasingly media production innovation is multi channel
and interactive in nature, often crossing over in to gaming. Content produced reaches its audience through a
variety of channels. DTVDS will have the right technical facilities to address these developments and will be
stitched into a community of digital enterprises and entrepreneurs who are working in this fields.

Digbeth Digital Studios will improve the Greater Birmingham’s skills talent pool by partnering with a number of
educational institutions to assist with the transition from learning to earning and tailoring courses to provide
skills the industry needs.

Greater Birmingham has a wealth of creative industry talent behind and in front of the camera; diverse culture,
knowledge and sensibility and educational opportunities that support reactive industrial growth.

Digbeth Digital Studios will improve digital connectivity.

Digbeth Digital Studios will strengthen the existing working community of creatives in the region.

Digbeth Digital Studios will bring economic activity to the region that would otherwise not come.

Digbeth Digital Studios will be a beacon in the city and beyond for Greater Birmingham’s rightful participation
in the global communications and media industries.
Are there any links to other Government programmes and what are the projected outcomes?
£15.15m
Name: Val Birchall
Organisation: BCC
Contact details:
Funding
requirements and
potential
leverage/match
funding (£)
Duration of project
Govt Depts /
Agencies
Partners
Resource
Requirements
Assessment Criteria
Include links to other funding including EU funding
It is anticipated that substantially all of the physical works to create Digbeth Digital Studios and the Digbeth Streetscape
Project will be complete within 24 months of approval of funding. It is anticipated that The Digbeth Marketing Campaign
will have a three year duration. It will have a positive effect within the first 3 months.
Who do we need to engage with?
BCC, BBC, Media companies, Creative companies
What resources are needed to deliver the project if agreed it should be taken forward?
Evidence required:
Strong rationale for interventions inc. market failures:

Criteria A:
Ambition &
Rationale
Clear prioritisation of proposed activity at the local level with regards to national policy on growth
Effective solution that draws upon wider resources:

Addresses key local drivers

Clear argument how it will address problems/opportunities

Prioritisation of options
Name: Val Birchall
Organisation: BCC
Contact details:

How leverage will be achieved and to what level

Outline partnership arrangements
Value for money of local Enterprise Partnership Strategy:
Criteria B:
VFM

Explicit identification for each intervention that is proposed

Description of activity, outputs, timings and contribution to wider themes

Cost benefits ratios if they exist

Evidence of why interventions will work and how they will be realised

Demonstrate why economic benefits would not have occurred without the proposed interventions

Quantifying benefits and costs and produce benefits cost ratios and qualitative VFM assessments in line with
Government guidelines
Partnership Strength & Commitment:
Criteria C:
Delivery & Risk

Show deliverability risks are reduced with strong partnership relationships

Evidence of shared, pooled resources and alignment with other funding and collaboration on local planning

Private sector commitment
Strong clear partnerships across functional economic areas:

Clear and effective governance arrangements
Name: Val Birchall
Organisation: BCC
Contact details:

Collective decision making that supports the SEP from all local authority leaders

Joint decision making capacity for overlapping LEP’s
Capacity and Risk management:

Assessment of ‘deliverability of project’ inc capacity and risk

Commercial risks – funding & leverage

Financial risks – cost escalation resilience

Technical risks

Management risks – dependencies
Delivery routes, Timeframes and milestones:

Explanations of intervention design and delivery

Details of partner commitment building on existing partnerships, capacity and resource

Explanation of deployment of resource and from whom

Clear plan with timescales and milestones

Clear explanation of how proposed actions will make a difference and how it will be measured
Strong arrangements for local transparency and accountability, monitoring and evaluation:

Progress – Clear proposals of how progress and performance will be measured against key objectives inc specification and
milestones


Name: Val Birchall
Organisation: BCC
Contact details:
Accountability – Clear plans for transparent reporting of progress to local electorate and business community
Evaluation – Clear plans for longer term measurement in terms of impact evaluations and interventions. This will include a
clear methodical approach giving details of metrics and data required and outline evaluation of activity and resources