Decision for new BBC base in Birmingham expected next week

The broadcasting giant will be swapping its current digs in the Mailbox for a new state-of-the-art facility.

A Birmingham City Council planning committee will decide the fate of the application next Thursday, March 16.

The site in Bordesley Street, which is set to be renamed “The Tea Factory”, is derelict after it shut down in 1978.

If plans are approved it will undergo a major regeneration into the broadcaster’s “most sustainable and flexible centre.” Costs for the project have not yet been revealed but the BBC claims it is less than staying at its current home at the Mailbox.

The new site is also next to Digbeth Loc Studios, the future home of MasterChef. It is expected that all BBC staff will make the move by 2026. This will include BBC Midlands Today, BBC Radio WM, The Archers, BBC Radio One’s Newsbeat and Asian Network News.

The new base will lie in the heart of Digbeth, a stone’s throw from the Custard Factory – the former home of the Birds Custard factory- which is now a hub for independent businesses, the arts, retail and restaurants.

More than ten acres of underutilised land around the site will be transformed including new public spaces around Typhoo Wharf. The project will also benefit from a new tram stop and will be just a couple of hundred metres from the planned HS2 Curzon Street terminus.

Speaking previously, West Midlands mayor Andy Street said the move would “act as the catalyst for the wider regeneration of Digbeth to become a global creative quarter”.

“It will also act as a magnet for young creative talent right across the West Midlands and the wider UK,” he added.

Leader of Birmingham City Council Coun Ian Ward said: “As the BBC clearly recognises, this is a city on the up and our creative industries will have a big role to play in this golden decade of opportunity for Birmingham.”