Plans for a world-class medical research centre in Birmingham could be scuppered because of local opposition to a housing development that would pay for the project.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust wants to work alongside University of Birmingham and turn the former Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston into the “Harvard of the UK”, with a bid to match the American university’s global reputation for cutting edge care and research.
The project’s value is in excess of £100 million, and one of the first phases will develop proton therapy – a ground-breaking way of targeting tumours with beams of charged protons.
The new-look QE hospital would also strengthen University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust’s position as the biggest clinical trials centre in Europe.
But UHB says the ambitious scheme can only stack up financially if it is allowed to fund the QE proposal by making money from selling the former Selly Oak Hospital site to a developer for housing.
That proposal, which involves building 900 homes, small shops and a health centre on the 40-acre Selly Oak site, is the subject of a jobs versus homes row and has been described as “crazy” by Bournville city councillor Nigel Dawkins, who says local people are united in opposing the idea.
He believes the land should be used chiefly for employment in line with the council’s A38 Technology Corridor proposals.
The UHB Trust will lodge a formal application with the city council in November and a decision from the planning committee is expected early next year.
There are claims that Bournville councillors, including Coun Dawkins and cabinet regeneration member Tim Huxtable, are trying to change Birmingham’s development guidelines in an attempt to stop the Selly Oak Hospital housing scheme from getting planning permission.
According to current planning guidance, the Selly Oak Hospital site offers a “unique opportunity” to create an “attractive, desirable neighbourhood characterised by quality homes”.
UHB officials believe the 900 houses fit perfectly with a council policy to develop an urban village in the Selly Oak area.
However, following public consultation, council planners asked UHB to respond to suggestions that instead of housing the former hospital site might accommodate a 50-metre swimming pool, commercial development and relocated hospital estates.
Changes to the draft guidance were then agreed by planners to include a presumption that the site should not be mainly used for residential development.
UHB officials say the draft guidance has no statutory backing and that the value of the Selly Oak Hospital site would be more than halved if it could not be sold for housing use – putting paid to the QE global centre of medical research plan.
