Outside of London, Birmingham is the UK’s largest city, and, with that, comes greater housing stock, customers, and infrastructure to contend with – not to mention the pressure and responsibility for the city’s businesses and authorities to perform and innovate.

Birmingham’s mantra is ‘Be bold, be Birmingham’ – refusing to shy away from ambitious commitments and instead using them as motivation. The city took the bold step of publicly declaring and committing to be net zero by 2030, with plans to implement citywide decarbonisation measures across all buildings, as well as introducing clean air zones, cycle routes and overhauling the public transport system.

Birmingham also has a levelling up strategy which is a blueprint to improve the lives and chances of people and communities across the city, with a theme of ‘prosperity and opportunity for all’.

These two admirable pledges are intrinsically intertwined, and here we take an in depth look at how Birmingham is tackling its two greatest challenges in tandem – creating a more sustainable, fair and thriving place to live while creating conditions for success.