Birmingham 'plans City of Culture bid'

Birmingham could bid to become Britain’s first national City of Culture.

Marketing Birmingham, the publicly-funded organisation in charge of boosting the city’s image to overseas investors, is currently deciding whether or not to go for the award, the Birmingham Post reports.

The government has set up the City of Culture competition in the wake of Liverpool’s successful tenure as the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Businesses in the area benefitted significantly from the 12 months of cultural events organised in the city.

Now Birmingham, an unsuccessful applicant in the international Capital of Culture competition won by Liverpool, could be the first to win the UK-only award.

A bid from the midlands city also seems to have won the backing of Ben Bradshaw, the culture secretary.

He commented: ’Excellence and innovation in the arts does not begin and end inside the M25, and we believe we have been too London-centric for too long in our cultural life.

’This competition aims to find a city or area outside London that has the wow factor, with exciting and credible plans to make a step change in its cultural life and engage the whole country … In the case of Birmingham, there is no reason why [the bid] shouldn’t be [for] Birmingham and its conurbation.’ADNFCR-2318-ID-19266461-ADNFCR