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The forgotten post-war decree that deliberately strangled Birmingham

birminghamdispatch.co.uk · 2,650 words · saved by 1 readers

For 40 years, an early ‘levelling up’ policy curtailed the city's industrial potential and constrained its growth

In 1860, an unemployed father of six, who had once sold paraffin from a cart in the streets of Hockley, tried his luck with a new metal-pressing business. Two decades later, Joseph Lucas’ bet paid off. The first Lucas factory opened on Hockley’s Great Hampton Street, and it would go on to become a giant of British industry, manufacturing parts for electrical appliances, cars, aircraft and defence equipment. In the early 1900s, Birmingham was booming. In 1902, the London-based General Electric Company set up its first purpose-built factory, the Witton Engineering Works, in Aston. At its peak, i

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