'Make us the City of Music': Plans for Birmingham to bid for status to honour its musical heritage

Crisis-hit Birmingham Council passed through its budget this week, saying it had closed a £300m black hole in its finances and ditched the ‘bankrupt Birmingham’ tag.

Despite Birmingham Labour facing criticism over the bankruptcy and ongoing bins strike, council leader John Cotton suggested there was still a bright future for the city.

He said the budget for 2026/27 includes an extra £130m investment in council services, focusing on “cleaner, safer streets and better local services”.

He also told the council chamber: “We’ve created a £1m culture fund – to develop a bid for City of Music status and celebrate everything from Black Sabbath to Lord of the Rings, St Patrick’s Day and the Ramadan Streets Festival.”

Asked about the bid and whether more should be done to mark the cultural impact of Black Sabbath, Coun Cotton said this week: “We’re really keen to celebrate the great musical legacy of this city.

“[This] spans a whole range of genres – you’ve got Black Sabbath at one end, I’ll give a shout out to Dexys Midnight Runners, and then the CBSO, the Royal Ballet and so on at the other end.

“So you’ve got a fantastic range of musical heritage in this city – what we’re looking to do is ensure that we are celebrating that as a city.

“So that bid for City of Music status, which we’ll bringing forward more details of shortly, will set out how exactly we’re going to celebrate Birmingham’s great musical legacy.”

Coun Cotton also addressed the Crown, the vacant Birmingham pub known as the venue where Black Sabbath played their first gig.

“Conversations continue around The Crown and around ensuring that we are protecting assets that reflect Birmingham’s story,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

A Birmingham Labour spokesperson added this week: “Under Labour’s leadership, the council has been engaged in very positive meetings with the pub’s owners.

“[It has been] pushing for plans that protect the heritage of the Crown and Station Street so that they remain at the heart of our city’s world-famous music and cultural scene for years to come.”

Campaigners fighting to ‘save’ Station Street however have repeatedly expressed frustration and argued there’s been a lack of progress being made when it comes to the future of The Crown.

Coun Cotton said this week that the extra £130m investment for the 2026/27 budget will enable the council to invest an extra £40 million in cleaner streets and step up fly-tipping enforcement.

“This is possible for two reasons,” Coun Cotton told the LDRS. “Firstly because of the steps we’ve taken to eliminate the deficit in the budget.

“But also we’ve benefited from a fair funding settlement from government which for the first time is multi-year, so we can plan for the next three years.”

During the meeting, he also highlighted a number of planned regeneration projects, including Birmingham City FC’s Sports Quarter and the Knowledge Quarter.

Coun Cotton added the city was already benefiting from the construction of HS2 and that the creative quarter in Digbeth was “flourishing”.

The council’s financial crisis saw an alarming wave of cuts to local services being made over the past two years and was partly caused by Birmingham-specific factors such as the equal pay and Oracle debacles.

Labour councillors have also pointed the finger at the legacy of ‘austerity’ during the previous Conservative government.