Homes England has selected Digbeth Loc Studios Ltd as its preferred development partner for Fazeley Street in Birmingham, advancing plans for a Digbeth creative quarter that would combine film and television activity with homes and other uses.
The agency announced the decision on 8th October 2026. The appointment is subject to contract and a standstill period, so it should not be confused with a planning approval, the start of building work or confirmation of a final housing capacity.
The proposed neighbourhood is intended to build on BBC Studioworks, The Bond, the Custard Factory and the Tea Factory. It represents another stage in turning former industrial premises in and around Warwick Bar into a working creative cluster with residential development alongside it.
Planning a mixed-use regeneration project?
Digbeth creative quarter partner chosen for Fazeley Street
According to Homes England’s announcement, the successful bidder is Digbeth Loc Studios Ltd, associated with filmmaker Steven Knight and the existing studio operation. The partnership is expected to take forward proposals with Birmingham City Council and the West Midlands Combined Authority.
The agency describes the objective as a mixed-use neighbourhood where people can live and work alongside creative businesses. However, it has not announced an application reference, a new consent, a final masterplan or the number of homes to be built on the Fazeley Street land.
That distinction is particularly important for assessing the planning consequence of a development partner appointment. Procurement establishes who is preferred to manage and potentially develop land. The planning process must still establish which changes of use, building works and infrastructure are acceptable.
Jo Nugent, Homes England’s executive director for the Midlands, described the opportunity as one that would “celebrate the area’s heritage while creating new opportunities”. The promise will eventually need to be tested against a specific scheme, not simply an economic-growth narrative.
What the £35 million figure actually means
The public procurement notice, published on 5th October 2026, records an estimated value of £35 million for the Fazeley Street opportunity. It identifies the land as approximately 1.4 hectares, or 3.46 acres, and describes Homes England’s 250-year headlease interest.
Crucially, the notice identifies the value as the project’s envisaged gross development value. It does not announce a £35 million government grant or a confirmed construction budget. The notice also says that Homes England does not envisage providing further financial support to a purchaser.
Confusing a tender value with public expenditure would considerably overstate the announcement. A proposed gross development value is a commercial estimate attached to the opportunity, not evidence that funding has been released or that a specific development quantum has been consented.
The site is already occupied by tenants operating principally in the media, charity and creative sectors. The notice anticipates active management of those occupiers, with limited potential for sympathetic infill rather than wholesale redevelopment of an empty site.
Historic buildings and occupied premises constrain the design
The land contains a mixture of historic and newer buildings, including some buildings identified as locally listed in the procurement description. New works will therefore need to sit alongside an established industrial streetscape and businesses that the public partners wish to retain.
There is an additional heritage precedent close to the studios. In February 2022, Homes England reported work to adapt the Grade II listed Junction Works, an eighteenth-century canal building at Warwick Bar, for the artist collective Grand Union.
Listed building consent may be needed where proposed works affect the character of a listed building. Other existing buildings may require separate planning or conservation scrutiny depending on their designation, setting and the precise nature of the intervention. A locally listed building is not subject to the same statutory regime as a nationally listed building.
For the development team, this makes surveying existing accommodation, understanding occupiers’ rights, establishing structural feasibility and assessing heritage impacts early especially important. It is not enough to label a scheme creative-led while leaving those practical constraints unresolved.
Housing ambition is broader than this appointment
The current announcement envisages homes but gives no site-specific housing figure. Homes England’s earlier Warwick Bar statement referred to an opportunity for around 1,000 homes and 25,000 square metres of employment and education space across the wider regeneration area.
Those 2022 figures must not be transferred to today’s 1.4-hectare Fazeley Street partner selection. The two documents concern different scopes, and the original broader figures were opportunity estimates, not a new commitment arising from the latest contract announcement.
Other proposals across Digbeth are also at different stages. The distinct Warwick Bar Phase 2 procurement concerns a much larger group of brownfield sites and should not be merged with this Fazeley Street selection when comparing land, costs or likely housing numbers.
For planning professionals, that separation matters whenever multiple regeneration land parcels share a single place brand. Site areas, planning applications, investment announcements and associated public benefits need to be matched to the correct parcel and decision.
What will planning applications need to demonstrate?
Any subsequent application for substantive development will need to respond to Birmingham’s adopted development plan and the policies applying at the date of determination. The detailed balance will depend on the final uses, scale and design, not on the identity of the preferred developer.
Likely examination points include how new housing would coexist with working studios, events and other commercial activity. Noise, servicing, access, daylight, transport, public realm and active frontages may all become material considerations if the eventual scheme contains sensitive residential uses beside active businesses.
Reuse of older industrial buildings can also present viability and delivery challenges. Fire safety, accessibility, building fabric, remediation and construction sequencing may affect what can realistically be converted or built, alongside heritage constraints and the need to keep occupiers operating.
Where public bodies seek wider regeneration benefits, those ambitions still require clear delivery mechanisms. The eventual planning documents should identify which routes are to be improved, how employment and cultural floorspace will be protected or provided, and whether any relevant infrastructure obligations are necessary and lawful.
Why the studio cluster matters to the city’s regeneration
Homes England has promoted Warwick Bar as a route to a more active urban neighbourhood since its agreement with Digbeth Loc Limited in 2022. The move of MasterChef production and the conversion of existing premises helped establish an economic anchor before larger mixed-use proposals were prepared.
The new selection reflects a model in which existing industries are intended to help attract homes, businesses and visitors rather than being displaced by a conventional residential-led clearance scheme. That approach can protect identity, but it also creates design and management requirements that should be addressed at the outset.
Steven Knight has described Fazeley Street as “the next stage of Digbeth’s creative story”. His stated ambition is to accommodate growing businesses and local talent while extending the cluster around the BBC’s investment at Typhoo Wharf.
Homes England and the local public partners will now have to turn that ambition into deliverable proposals. For the wider West Midlands investment context, see Planning Geek’s separate report on the West Midlands Futures Fund.
Next milestones: contract, proposals and permissions
The first milestone is completion of the procurement process and contract arrangements. That would establish the definitive delivery partner, but it would not automatically authorise new development on the site.
The next useful evidence will be site-specific proposals showing the retention and alteration of buildings, any additional floorspace or homes, the treatment of existing tenants and the public-realm arrangements. Any formal planning and heritage applications should then provide the opportunity to assess their effects.
Until that detail exists, the accurate position is that Homes England has selected a preferred partner for a creative-led mixed-use opportunity at Fazeley Street. Neither a housing target for this parcel nor a fresh planning permission has been confirmed in the 8th October announcement.
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