Stirchley Co-operative Development

A vital local housing and business project is under threat. After ten years of dedicated effort to create affordable, community-led housing, Stirchley Co-operative Development is facing an unfair financial demand that could jeopardise its future.

What is at stake

GreenSquareAccord (GSA), the housing association managing the construction project, is attempting to pass over £2 million in cost overruns onto the local community group.

Issue	Impact
Financial Burden	The project provides 39 affordable homes and purpose-built spaces for local businesses that were to be owned and run by the people who live and work in the area. SCD represents 10% of all social rent housing built in Birmingham between 2020 and 2025.
Risk to Local Businesses	Local co-operative businesses Artefact Projects, Birmingham Bike Foundry and Loaf Bakery and Cookery School are now facing the threat of insolvency.
Risk to Residents	The stability and future homes of local residents are being put at risk. Some residents are currently experiencing homelessness.
Risk to Local Democracy	SCD risks losing control of the scheme, with the potential for GSA to become the sole landlord, undermining years of voluntary work and community-led democratic management.

Take Action Now

This project was intended to be a national model for affordable, community-owned housing. By threatening to take over control of the building, GSA will deprive Stirchley of its locally owned assets.

Write to the Housing Ministers

Steve Reed – Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

• Fill out this enquiry form
• 020 7219 7297

Matthew Pennycook – Minister of State for Housing and Planning

• Fill out this enquiry form
• 020 7219 6280

Write to your local MP

Al Carns – Birmingham Selly Oak MP

Please contact Al Carns, the MP for Birmingham Selly Oak if you live in the constituency, to raise concerns about the actions of GreenSquareAccord.

• [email protected]
• 07594 530309

If you live elsewhere, you can also write to your local MP, especially if they live in Birmingham, though they may not already be familiar with the Stirchley Co-operative Development.

Contact the West Midlands Mayor

Contact Richard Parker, West Midlands Mayor, and ask for the West Midlands Combined Authority to support SCD financially. While Birmingham City Council has supported the project, the WMCA have yet to support us with more than words.

• [email protected]
• Fill out this enquiry form
• 0345 303 6760

Template letters

Here are template letters to help write to the above politicians to encourage them to advocate for SCD. Please add your own voice and personal perspective if possible.

Subject

Urgent concern: GreenSquareAccord and the Stirchley Co-operative Development

Content

Dear [Al Carns MP / Steve Reed MP / Matthew Pennycook MP / Mayor Richard Parker / whomever it may concern],

I am writing to you as a [constituent / concerned citizen] to urge you to take immediate action to protect Stirchley Co-operative Development (SCD) from the conduct of GreenSquareAccord (GSA), which threatens to destroy a landmark community housing project a decade in the making.

What is at stake? SCD was established in 2016 by local residents and worker co-operatives to tackle the housing affordability crisis in Stirchley, and provide many services and a community hub.

After nearly ten years of community effort and investment, the project is within months of delivering 39 genuinely affordable homes and three commercial spaces for the co-operative businesses Birmingham Bike Foundry, Artefact Projects, and Loaf Bakery — businesses that are cornerstones of the local community. This project is intended to be a national model for community-owned, democratically managed housing.

When the original building contractor went into administration in 2024, GSA stepped in to complete the build, but crucially, without issuing a formal contract. This left SCD with no mechanism to challenge costs or deadlines.

Construction delays followed, and GSA has now attempted to pass over £2 million in cost overruns onto SCD, raising the project price from £10.68m to £12.94m, significantly above the building’s valuation. When SCD, with the support of Birmingham City Council and community investors worked hard to meet a revised offer, GSA moved the goalposts again, adding a further £369,000 to the price.

On 12 March 2026, GSA informed SCD that it intends to retain ownership of the near-completed building unless its ever increasing financial demands are met. It should be noted that SCD members have contributed over 10,000 volunteer hours to the project and to the value of the building.

The consequences are severe: three local businesses face insolvency; residents who planned to call this building home face housing insecurity; and the democratic community-ownership model that SCD represents risks being erased entirely.

Why does this demand your attention? GSA is a regulated social housing provider, and the Regulator of Social Housing placed GreenSquareAccord on its “gradings under review” list as recently as May 2026, citing potential serious failings in governance and financial viability.

GSA’s own construction arm has faced significant difficulties, including placing its modular timber-frame factory into voluntary liquidation. It is deeply troubling that costs arising from these internal failings appear to have been passed onto a small community group.

The spirit of community-led housing, which government policy actively encourages, is being undermined by the conduct of a housing association that is itself under regulatory scrutiny.

What am I asking you to do?

[For the MP, Al Carns]
Please raise this matter directly with GSA and with Ministers at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. I ask you to use your position to urge GSA to honour its original agreement with SCD and to call for an independent review of how these cost overruns arose and were passed on.

[For Housing Ministers (Steve Reed / Matthew Pennycook)]
I urge you to direct the Regulator of Social Housing to examine GSA’s conduct in this case as part of its ongoing review. I also ask that you consider what protections exist — or should exist — for community-led registered providers when larger housing associations act as development partners without formal contracts. SCD should not be punished for GSA’s internal failures.

[For West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker / other WMCA email addresses]
I ask the West Midlands Combined Authority to explore urgent financial support for SCD to bridge the gap that GSA’s conduct has created. The WMCA has championed community-led housing; this is a moment to show that commitment in action. SCD represents exactly the kind of locally owned, democratically accountable, genuinely affordable housing that our region needs. Please act now before it is too late.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]

[Your address / email]

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Additionally you could:

• Reach out with any leads on potential investment opportunities
• Donate to our member solidarity fund

Find out more and get involved

We are incredibly and eternally grateful for your support

🌈🙏🩷

www.stirchley.coop | Instagram: @stirchleycd

See our FAQ for more info on SCD

A community plan for more affordable homes
and shared spaces in Stirchley

In Autumn 2025 we worked together with Unit38 Architects and members of the local community to generate a Community Plan for the brownfield site next to Aldi. We have now launched a mini site plan.stirchley.coop to show the results of this planning process and the huge potential for this site in Stirchley’s future. Please check it out!

GreenSquareAccord decides to become landlord of Stirchley Community Project

Birmingham, UK – 15th March 2026

On Thursday 12th March, GreenSquareAccord (GSA) leadership informed Stirchley Co-operative Development (SCD) that it intends to retain ownership of the nearly completed and much-delayed building, jeopardising a project developed by and funded for local residents and workers.

SCD believes that this decision passes GSA’s costs onto SCD members and our local community.

SCD is a democratic, community-led organisation formed by local residents and worker co-operatives in 2016. The building has 39 residential flats and three commercial spaces.

The project was established in direct response to the gentrification of Stirchley, where rising commercial rents have put long-standing local businesses at risk of displacement.

Birmingham Bike Foundry, Artefact, and Loaf are not only tenants but co-owners, businesses that have spent a decade investing their time, money, and labour into developing the building alongside residents in order to secure their future in the area.

The 39 residential flats are set at social rent levels, due to the government grant, ensuring that people working in Stirchley’s low-paid industries can afford to live on the same high street they work on.

Ownership has always been central to this vision – who owns the building matters because it determines who has long-term power over, and who benefits from those spaces.

GSA took over construction in 2024 following the original contractor’s insolvency. As our existing housing association partner, we were told that signing a new contract wasn’t on the table as construction would now be in house.

We had no reason to doubt our years-long understanding and have always had confidence that the building would be transferred as agreed with GSA on a turnkey basis upon completion, expected in June 2025.

GSA’s claim that “SCD can’t meet the costs of the project” misrepresents the current situation. Construction delays under GSA increased their project costs.

It now appears they are seeking to recoup their losses by raising the sale price by £1.2 million beyond what our social housing and worker co-op project can afford. Social rent housing and affordable work premises mean rents are capped and so is our ability to go above the original sale price – something GSA have always been aware of.

Rather than negotiate, GSA has begun approaching individual worker co-ops directly about commercial leases, with no affordability guarantees, no move-in dates, and no commitment to current residents, many of whom are homeless while they wait due to repeated unfulfilled move in dates.

The consequences are devastating: three long-standing, local businesses at risk of closure, serious housing insecurity for residents, and lasting damage to the prospects for large scale co-operative Registered Social Landlord housing projects in the U.K.

SCD rejects the notion that GSA can own the building and still retain the community-led aspect of the project. SCD is rooted in the community.

The project wouldn’t exist without the 10 years of community groundwork – SCD helped to develop the plan, broker the land deal, and navigate the planning process. SCD secured the crucial £210k Community Housing Fund to work up the planning application, leading to the Homes England capital grant that made the whole project viable.

In their refusal letter, GSA state they are “committed to ensuring the spirit of the project continues.” But the “spirit” of the project is inseparable from its co-operatively owned nature, which is now at risk.

Far from being “the responsible thing to do”, GSA’s decision represents a large institution taking control of a project created through community labour and public support, while transferring consequences that were outside of the control of SCD onto the local community.

Their claim to also be providing housing at social rents, ignores the fact that the plan to do so would fully continue under SCD and that the responsible thing to do would have been for them to stick to completion dates and hand over the project on time.

SCD calls on political representatives, sector leaders, and the public to stand with the Stirchley community and as it looks for an immediate path back to community ownership.

For additional questions, please contact [email protected]

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We are excited to announce that Stirchley Co-operative Development (SCD) has been awarded Registered Provider (RP) status by the The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). 

This is a huge milestone in our progression as a co-operative which we have been working towards over the past few years. Being a Registered Provider is very important as it means we will be eligible to access capital grant for the residential element of the scheme to buy the building from our partner Green Square Accord (GSA) once the site reaches the stage of Practical Completion. That money comes from Homes England who distribute funding for social housing in the UK via Registered Providers. In short this makes the scheme viable through accessing that grant alongside our mortgage and means that SCD as an independent housing co-operative will be able to provide secure and affordable housing long into the future.

We are really glad to have been working with RSH to strengthen our policies and processes as a team. We’ve learnt a lot from the process and will be incorporating those skills when it comes to managing the building. The next step involves collaborating with Birmingham City Council’s nomination team to prepare for social housing applications via Birmingham Choice. We have finalised nomination agreements and are now moving forward with this process in earnest.

We want to create a community-led plan for more affordable, ecological co-operative housing, and retail or leisure on the proposed McDonalds site in Stirchley, Birmingham.

Join us for a second meeting where we will discuss massing and building types for the site. This will be a hands on session where participants will be able to develop and discuss ideas using blocks and cardboard.

This will be the second in a number of sessions guided by Unit 38 who will work with Stirchley co-operative Development and members of the public to generate a community plan for the site McDonalds proposed a drive through on. After 250+ applications for 20 flats in our new building we know that there is a huge need for affordable housing in the area, which won’t be solved by just one building. We also know that co-operatively owned retail units and leisure are something lacking from the area. We think that the future of the high street should be shaped, and owned by the people who live here – not international corporations like McDonalds.

Book your tickets here. This event is ticketed (with a very low entry cost) so we can arrange a suitable venue for peoples access requirements bearing in mind our limited funds. Some free tickets available along with solidarity contribution optional.

You can also join the forum here to get involved in the discussion. 

Location

Stirchley Baths, Bournville Lane, Birmingham, GB, B30 2JT

Tue 23 Sep 2025 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

CREATING A COMMUNITY PLAN FOR STIRCHLEY: LEARNING FROM CATALAN CO-OPERATIVES

We want to create a community-led plan for more affordable, ecological co-operative housing, and retail or leisure on the proposed McDonald’s site in Stirchley, Birmingham.

In this session we will hear from Nina Turull Puig a project engineer from Sostre Civic Co-operative in Barcelona. Sostre Civic are at the forefront of developing a wave of beautiful and award winning social housing co-operatives in a city which has become a byword for gentrification – much like Stirchley. We will also meet architects from Unit 38 a practice in London, who specialise in empowering neighbourhoods to create community plans; previously working with the campaign to Save Latin Village in Tottenham and Manchester Tenants Union creating a plan for an estate with earmarked for luxury student housing. 

This will be the first in a number of sessions guided by Unit 38 who will work with Stirchley co-operative Development and members of the public to generate a community plan for the site McDonalds proposed a drive through on. After 250+ applications for 20 flats in our new building we know that there is a huge need for affordable housing in the area, which won’t be solved by just one building. We also know that co-operatively owned retail units and leisure are something lacking from the area. We think that the future of the high street should be shaped, and owned by the people who live here – not international corporations like McDonalds. 

This event is ticketed (with a very low entry cost) so we can arrange a suitable venue for peoples access requirements bearing in mind our limited funds. 

LOCATION

Stirchley Baths, Bournville Lane, Birmingham, GB, B30 2JT

Tue 26 Aug 2025 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Grab your ticket here.

Press release by GSA: Construction completed on highest point of 35ft co-operative development in Stirchley

A major milestone has been reached by our in-house construction team at the community-owned Stirchley Co-operative building.

This achievement was marked with a visit from Selly Oak MP, Al Carns and West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker who recently took part in a ‘topping out’ ceremony which celebrated the completion of the highest point of the three-storey, 35ft co-operative building.

Al Carns MP who represents Selly Oak said:“It was great to see the progress being made at the Stirchley Co-operative Development, and to catch up with the team who are doing fantastic work to create a pioneering co-operative housing and workspace on Stirchley High Street. This is a brilliant and innovative development, which is not only helping to meet the local housing need but is setting an example for others to follow in the provision of affordable and energy-efficient homes and workspaces. It’s a fantastic step forward for Stirchley.”

The £10.4 million development, located in the heart of Stirchley, which will be owned and managed by Stirchley Co-operative Development (SCD) will provide:

1. 39 affordable rental homes with laundries and common garden spaces.
2. Fit-for-purpose premises for three existing co-operative businesses that are currently renting privately in Stirchley.
3. A new community space including a pedestrian walkway, seating, a shared garden and cycle parking.

August Gawen, a SCD member who will be moving into an apartment in the building said: “I was homeless three years ago and have seen the worst Birmingham has to offer in run down supported accommodation. So, to see the SCD almost at completion and the comfort and security that it offers not only me, but other vulnerable Birmingham residents as well, brings me immense joy.”

The community- owned development is being built by our in-house construction team who took over the contract in April 2024. Since then, works have continued at pace with all the UPVC windows for the apartments installed, brick and block work completed on the ground floor, sewage pipes connected, and the roof has been made fully watertight.

Carl Taylor, our Assistant Director of New Business and Growth said: “It was a real pleasure to show Al Carns MP around the site today as we celebrated all the progress made to date. Once complete this unique development will become a thriving community hub embracing skill-sharing, creativity and the circular economy.

“We are delighted to be a key delivery partner on this exciting scheme and structural work has now commenced on the first floor.”

The SCD scheme on Pershore Road, is being built using timber frame panels, provided by Walsall-based LoCaL Homes, which will reduce the overall carbon dioxide emissions and heating bills versus traditional built properties due to its fabric first design principles and high-quality factory-fitted insulation.

Mike Doolan, Sales and Partnership Manager at LoCaL Homes said: “We are excited to be part of this innovative development which will help to meet local housing need.

“Our off-site manufactured timber frames are helping speed up construction times and reduce the environmental impact of this development.

“The main structure of the timber frame is finished and infall panels are now on site and being installed.”

The next stages of construction will see windows for the shop fronts put in place, utilities installed on all floors alongside plastering works.

The project plans were unanimously approved by Birmingham City Council in 2021, and SCD purchased the site from Seven Capital in August 2022 after securing significant funding from Homes England and the European Interreg NWE.

Chris Tomlinson SCD member and co-owner of Birmingham Bike Foundry said: “When we had our first meeting in 2016 to plan how we could build secure, sustainable housing for ourselves and our democratic businesses I had no idea of the challenges ahead of us. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved so far and excited to show others what we’ve achieved as a community.”

Construction of the SCD development is expected to be complete this Summer.