Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Hall set to receive £1 million cash injection

I welcome the fantastic news that Sutton Coldfield’s historic Town Hall is set to receive a ‘game-changing’ cash injection of up to £1million which will not only secure the future of the much-loved landmark but also consolidate a community hub. It will fund vital repairs to the fabric of the building, and also kickstart an exciting new era creating new jobs and opportunities and shaping a facility which is ready to serve the community in the coming decades.

Andy Street and I have been working closely together on this for more than a year and we are both delighted to deliver this important result for an iconic building in the Royal Town.

The listed building, which since 2016 has been run by The Royal Sutton Coldfield Community Town Hall Trust (RSCCTHT), is to get the funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), which is led by our Mayor Andy Street.

The building’s main purpose is already established as a community-based arts, performance and cultural hub serving Sutton Coldfield and North Birmingham. With this funding, these plans now mean the building will be able to continue to deliver what it is known for – from staging national productions to providing a home for amateur drama, and from business events to weddings and youth theatre. 

But it can now look forward to a new broader connection with the community, through a new allied employment hub, a café and a partnership which will drive opportunities for local young people.

Crucially, the funds – which were approved by the WMCA’s Investment Board this week – will be used to carry out emergency works including replacing slate roofing and restoring the stone balustrades in the Edwardian part of the building, to prevent further leaking.

The investment, which is the result of an application made by RSCTHCT in 2021, will also safeguard the jobs of 16 full-time employees at the Hall on Upper Clifton Road, as well as creating nine new full-time roles, including two apprenticeships.

However, the funds will also create a new independent office suite at the site, where an established charity tenant will develop a Community Hub that enables disadvantaged young people to follow a journey into employment.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said: “Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Hall is a much-loved heritage building which has played an important role in the lives of generations of local residents, and I’m delighted that this application has been successful, and the WMCA is making this significant investment in its future.

“I understand how important the Town Hall is to many Sutton residents. This is a landmark that has been saved in the past by public campaigns, and most recently was at the centre of vaccination roll-out as well as a Food Bank collection point during the pandemic – it’s right at the heart of the Royal town.

“The Royal Sutton Coldfield Community Town Hall Trust has given the building a new lease of life since taking over and has shown real ambition and vision with their plans.

“This £1million investment will help secure jobs, create new opportunities and forge a bright future for the Town Hall.”

The new employment Hub will have a core team of 10 full-time outreach employees and will also create six new jobs for disadvantaged people and up to 20 apprenticeships.

Under the plans, the hub will also boast a cafe where young people will volunteer or be employed, providing an asset to the Town Hall which would be open to the public.

The charity responsible for the employment hub and the RSCCTH Trust has identified substantial potential for joint working across a range of partnership projects to support employment and training.

The money would also be used to open up and improve the public open space around the Hall, with a landscaped pedestrian walkway connecting Sutton Coldfield Railway Station and the Town Centre to the BMet College, professional services and assorted evening economy businesses in the emerging High Street cultural quarter of the town.

This is fabulous news. Our long established dreams for the Town Hall, which started with a donation from the late Sir Doug Ellis of £200,000 can now forge ahead. More news on this next week too!

Opening up the new intervention hub at Fairfax Academy

Today I officially opened an innovative new ‘intervention hub’ at Fairfax Academy, which is already making a significant difference to life at the school.

The ground-breaking hub, which was built over the summer with funding of more than £35,000 from Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust (SCCT), provides a place for students to spend time, where they receive intensive mentoring and coaching following incidents of poor behaviour.

Staffed by a Behaviour Lead and a Mental Health lead, the new building is in a sectioned-off, landscaped area near Fairfax’s sports hall.

I was joined by Inge Kettner, vice-Chair of SCCT, Fairfax Principal Sean Castle and Karen Bloor, of Fairfax Multi-Academy Trust, as we unveiled a plaque to officially open the Hub on Friday, November 24.

It was a great pleasure to see how this Hub is making a difference to students’ lives and is clearly enabling an innovative approach to helping students who display behavioural issues.

Sutton Coldfield is lucky to be blessed with very good and forward-thinking schools, and this brilliant idea at Fairfax is a great example of that innovative outlook.

It’s also a great example of how the Royal Town’s oldest charity – Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust – continues to support very important schemes with vital funding.

Fairfax Principal Sean Castle said: “We are very grateful to Andrew Mitchell for coming along and opening our Hub today, and finding out more about how it is contributing to transforming the culture of the school.

“Last year we launched our Behavioural Curriculum, which is about teaching our students social norms and helping them understand how to behave in certain situations, covering everything from how we walk through corridors to taking pride in our appearance and treating each other with respect.

“The Hub is a very important part of the journey we are on as a school, in terms of behaviour. Like all schools, when students are involved in an incident of poor behaviour, we have a specific tailored programme for them to follow, which aims to refocus them so they can get back into the classroom relatively quickly.

“However, the Hub provides a place where some students can benefit from a longer, more intensive time period out of lessons, to have mentoring and coaching around that particular behaviour.

“For example, for some students being in the Hub is a much more productive form of suspension, as they will come into the Hub and still get their lessons, while being mentored and supported,” he added.

Inge Kettner said: “Anything that helps keeps children in school and gives them the opportunity to make a success of their lives has to be a good thing, so we were very happy to support this project.

“We work with other organisations that deal with children who are often outside of the school system through exclusion, and we know from their results that it is so much harder to turn their lives around – so early intervention like this can be vital.

“Supporting education is one of our primary eight aims at the Trust and it was great to see how pupils are already benefitting from this grant.”

Above: senior figures at Fairfax, the Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust, Cllr Richard Parkin, and Andrew Mitchell MP at this great opening.

Visiting the Mitchell Centre (no relation)

I had a fascinating time this morning at the much-admired Mitchell Centre on Weeford visiting many of the wonderful businesses there and talking about this week’s budget and the changes to business allowances, the cut in national insurance tax and the maintenance of the triple lock on pensions and the defence of benefits for the most vulnerable in our society.

These are some of the most interesting businesses locally in a superb setting and here are some of those shopkeepers I had the pleasure of spending time with.

Plenty of interesting ideas for Christmas presents here!

See the ‘More info’ section for information on their Christmas Exhibition.

Above: Meeting Bennet & Bowman interiors

Above: Fabulous paintings in the art gallery

Above: The flower shop, Greenery & Co

Above: A Christmas present bought from The Candle Shop!

Above: the Mitchell family’s The Hungry Horse, providing food and equipment for horses and other animals- a specialist independent equine and pet retailer

The Spirit of Royal Sutton Coldfield

I was in Minworth today on the canal at the rear of the Boat I had the great pleasure of launching “The Spirit of Royal Sutton Coldfield” which is the brain child of David Train, former Olympic Coach and President of the Fladbury Paddle Club.

His boat stands for our hopes in combatting climate change and promoting the biosphere.

It flies the flag of Samoa which next year will host the Commonwealth heads of government meeting and where climate environment and nature will be incredibly prominent in their discussions.

As the crew paddled off down the canal we cheered their resolve and public spiritedness.

Above: David Train and I

Above: aboard the Spirit of Sutton Coldfield

Above: The boat flies the flag of Samoa

Birmingham City Council 

Please see below an update from Cllr Simon Ward, leader of our Town Council:

“As part of our commitment to the regeneration of our Town Centre the Town Council has been working hard over recent months to deliver a transport scheme to promote travel to our Town Centre over the crucial Christmas period by encouraging more visitors and greater footfall. Businesses in the Town Centre urgently need any support that can be provided to them.

This would have involved subsidised bus, bike and car parking provision to encourage the use of our Town centre in both the weekend and evening periods.  The Town Council was ready to fund this scheme, to the tune of £35,000 and to do our level best to support local businesses in both the retail and hospitality sectors over this key trading period.  Our Town Centre is after all the second largest urban centre across the entire city. 

Birmingham City Council were asked to enable the free use of its car parks in our royal town at crucial trading periods over the festive season with the Town Council making good lost income.  The City Council refused to make their car parks available for the scheme over the most important Saturday shopping period. This is the third year in a row that the City Council have torpedoed a scheme like this – yet again letting our Royal Town down. The reasons given are all around not wanting to be seen to promote the use of the car.  Such dogmatic and short-sighted logic ignores both the bus and bike elements of our scheme but also the real needs of our Town Centre businesses today. 

The Town Council is committed to promoting all forms of transport and to doing all that we can to support the Town Centre.  Birmingham City Council remains dysfunctional; arrogant and concerned with itself – what a way to treat Royal Sutton Coldfield”

Many of my constituents in the Royal Town, already deeply dismayed by Labour bankrupting Birmingham City Council will be astonished and deeply irritated by the update above from the leader of the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council.

Britain's Youngest Author - Jayce Joyce

Earlier this year I met the talented young Jayce, who, at 5 years old, has become Britain’s Youngest Author. 

Jayce’s mum recently wrote to me about the incredible things Jayce has continued to achieve since then.

Since March, Jayce has been using his talent to inspire children through numerous visits to local nurseries, primary schools, libraries, community groups, and bookshops. 

Events have included Storytime sessions and workshops at Mere Green Library, Ladybird Montessori Nursery, Coppice Primary School, Castle Vale Nursery, Lichfield Cathedral School, Little Rainbows Nursery, One Lichfield Community Group, Banana Moon Nursery, Mere Green Primary School, Erdington Library and Handsworth Library. He is due to visit more schools in the coming months including Moor Hall Primary School which will be next.

A big well done to Jayce for achieving so much and encouraging other children across the Royal Town and in Birmingham to read and write more!

West Midlands Police

I regret to report that the West Midlands police have been placed in special measures today.

The government’s plans for the police and crime commission to come under the control of the Mayor are greatly to be welcomed and I hope that Andy Street will take over this role next year.

Global Food Security Summit and International Development White Paper

It has been a momentous week in the foreign office. The government published our White Paper on development: a new plan for helping the poorest people in the world, but with a difference. Britain has always helped those in desperate need. It’s in our DNA.  It is not just the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. We live in a deeply troubled but closely connected world, where problems thousands of miles away haunt us at home. We’ve seen how Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine affected food and energy prices the world over. And Covid is a stark reminder that when a pandemic strikes, no country is immune, and no person is safe until everyone is safe.

At the same time, when the British purse is under pressure, it cannot be business as usual. So over the past few months we brought together some of the sharpest minds in the business to come up with a fresh approach. We consulted extensively with NGOs, academics, businesses and scientists. We brought all political parties on board. Together we have devised a smart new plan, which goes beyond traditional financial assistance. The plan will unlock new, non-government finance, stretch the world’s balance sheets and put science at the heart of our strategy to tackle poverty and climate change. 

We will work with all out partners in the international system, using our expertise in scientific institutions and the private sector, to discover and export solutions to global ills. Vaccines to fight diseases. Technology and AI to tackle dirty and stolen money. Digital inventions to predict extreme weather events.  All of which will help shore up communities and create opportunities for them thrive.  Ultimately, Smart money will help to generate revenue; revenue is what feeds the world’s economic growth; and growth helps tackle the causes, as well as the symptoms, of the many challenges we face together.

Earlier in the week I showcased the potential that the combination of money, science and expertise, has to change the world. The Global Food Security Summit, which the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary spoke at, was the smart plan ‘in action’. In this instance looking at the role of science in tackling starvation and its root causes, including climate change. UK scientists have already pioneered ways of growing crops in tough conditions, including droughts. UK science is literally helping to feed the world, helping to face down the devastating effects of climate change. 

This new plan shows that the UK has the will and the way to make a difference, to the one planet we share. It is right, it is smart, and it is absolutely necessary to strive for a better and safer world for future generations. 

You can read my speech from the Summit here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/global-food-security-summit-2023-minister-mitchells-speech

And you can read more about the white paper here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-unveils-white-paper-to-set-approach-to-global-development

Budget good news

In January 2023, the Prime Minister set out five priorities for government. Three of them were economic: to halve inflation, grow the economy, and reduce debt. Since then, inflation has halved; the economy has recovered more quickly from the pandemic than first thought, and debt is on track to fall.

Wednesday’s Autumn statement marked a major moment as we change gear and focus on yhow to drive growth in the decade ahead, with the biggest package of tax cuts to be implemented since the 1980s, while getting borrowing down and inflation falling.

This means combining the biggest tax cut on investment in modern British history with the largest ever cut to workers National Insurance. The Autumn Statement for Growth will:

•           Cut taxes for 27 million working people from January by cutting the main rate of National Insurance Contributions from 12 per cent to 10 per cent. For the average worker earning £35,000 a year, that means a £450 tax cut.

•           Cut and simplify tax for 2 million of the self-employed, abolishing an entire class of NICs and cutting the rate of the NICs top rate from 9 per cent to 8 per cent – a with an average total saving of around £350 for someone earning £28,000 a year.

•           Cut business taxes by £11 billion – the biggest business tax cut in modern British history by permanently enabling businesses to invest for less and offset investments against their tax bills.

•           Reduce debt, with the OBR forecasting we will meet our fiscal rule to have debt falling as a share of the economy a year early.

•           Cut business rates by freezing the small business multiplier yet again, saving an average shop £1,650, and extending the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Relief for a year.

•           Boost the National Living Wage to record levels: £11.44 an hour. That is a 9.8 per cent increase, benefiting 2.7 million workers.

•           Help the most vulnerable with an average income boost of £800. 1.6 million of the families most struggling with the cost of living will have their Local Housing Allowance increased.

•           Boost pensions, in line with our Triple Lock, by 8.5 per cent – ensuring dignity in older age for those who have worked their entire lives. The basic State Pension will be £3,750 higher than in 2010.

•           Freeze alcohol duty, alleviating pressure on the hospitality sector.

•           Increase all working age benefits in full by 6.7 per cent, boosting benefit payments for around 5.5 million households who receive Universal Credit – by an average of £470 a year.

•           Provide support with the cost of living with further Cost of Living Payments this year, helping more than 8 million UK households on eligible means-tested-benefits, 8 million pensioner households and 6 million people across the UK on eligible disability benefits.

•           Get people into work by reforming welfare and toughening up work requirements.

•           Reduce inflation further. The OBR state that the package as a whole means inflation is forecast to be lower next year than they said at Spring Budget.