New images reveal Birmingham's 2022 Commonwealth Games Village
New artist's impressions reveal what Birmingham's Commonweath Games Village will look like when it welcomes sportsmen and women from around the world in 2022.
After providing a temporary home for 6,500 athletes and officials during the games, the village will then be converted into 1,000 more permanent homes as the heart of a regeneration plan for the Perry Barr area of the city.
Eventually up to 3,000 new homes will be built around the north-west of Birmingham, but the housing legacy of the Commonwealth Games will provide a significant acceleration for the scheme.
The Games Village will include accommodation, dining, medical, transport and essential services for athletes and team officials and will be situated on a 59-acre (24-hectare) site off the A453 Aldridge Road.
The site is the current location of the old University of Central England (UCE) and Birmingham City University (BCU) campus near Perry Barr greyhound stadium and the One Stop Shopping Centre and is just one mile from Alexander Stadium, which will play a pivotal role during the Games.
The competitors and officials will be housed in a mix of one and two-bed apartments as well as three and four-bed town houses.
After the Games, the Village accommodation will be converted and become available as a mixture of homes for sale or rent, including some offered at social and affordable rent through the city council’s Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust and In-Reach rental initiative.
As part of the village development, there are plans to invest in wider infrastructure in the surrounding area, including local access improvements, a proposed new bus interchange, the introduction of a SPRINT rapid bus service along the A34, and work to upgrade Perry Barr railway station.
First revealing the plans for the village earlier this year, Councillor Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham City Council and chairman of the Birmingham 2022 bid team, said: "Our proposal to bring the Games to Birmingham had a number of key strengths, including our outstanding track record of staging major sporting events, and having almost all of the competition venues in place.
“The development of the village is therefore the largest new-build element of the Games – and will help rejuvenate Perry Barr and the wider surrounding area, meaning there will be a meaningful and lasting legacy for the people of Birmingham, in particular those living near the heart of the action in 2022.
“We have a desperate need for high-quality housing in the city and it would have been much trickier to meet that demand if we had not been successful in our bid to host the Games.
“A major regeneration programme like this will result in some degree of local disruption in the short-term and we recognise that patience will be required, but the long-term gains will far outweigh this.
“We are committed to engage with and involve local residents and businesses every step of the way over the next four years.”
