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Land at the corner of Swallow Street and Hill Street Birmingham B2 4AA

2025/02559/PAFull PlanningRefused
Full

Refused on 19 December 2025

Council decision: Refuse1 reason for refusal

Approximate location: the centre of the postcode, not the exact property.

Proposal

Full planning application for the erection of a single building to be used for purpose-built student accommodation (sui generis), with commercial use (Use Classes E) at ground floor, and associated works

Received
7 May 2025
Ward
Ladywood
  1. Received7 May
  2. Validated23 Jul
  3. Consult.
  4. Target
  5. Decided19 Dec

Decided in 149 days (council typically 56)

About this application

This is a full planning application at Land at the corner of Swallow Street and Hill Street Birmingham B2 4AA. Birmingham has handled 10,255 applications of this type. This one was decided in 226 days, 24 weeks longer than Birmingham's typical decision time. The site is in the Colmore Row and Environs conservation area, with 6 listed buildings nearby. There are no previous applications recorded at this address. In the past year there have been 122 applications across Ladywood. We hold 36 applications in total for the B2 postcode area.

83% of full applications at Birmingham City Council were approved. Across all application types, the council typically decides in about 8 weeks (median).

Based on decided applications received in the last 3 years.Planning something similar? See what gets approved on your street

Why it was refused

  1. The proposed development causes less than substantial harm to the significance of the Town Hall (Grade I) and the General Post Office (Grade II) by way of development in its setting, of an excessive scale. Great weight is given to the conservation of these assets and the public benefits associated with the proposed Purpose-Built Student Accommodation do not outweigh that harm. Therefore, the proposed development is contrary to Policy TP12 of the Birmingham Development Plan (2017) and Paragraph 214 of the NPPF

From the council's decision notice.

Application details

Postcode
B2 4AA
Application type
Full Planning
Scale / size
Large
District
Ladywood

Planning application dates

Date validated
23 July 2025
Application expires
6 August 2025

Planning decision

Statutory period
14 days

Additional information

Documents
131

Site constraints

Checking the site
2/3
Council recordsAppealsFlood risk

Designations at the address point. Ones next to the site may also apply.

  • Conservation area: Colmore Row and Environs Conservation Area
  • Article 4 direction: City Wide Hmo
  • Flood zone 1: Low probability (rivers and sea)
Also checked, none recorded (22)

flood storage areas, listed buildings, tree preservation orders, green belt, scheduled monuments, World Heritage Sites, World Heritage Site buffer zones, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, Heritage at Risk entries, nutrient neutrality catchments, national parks, National Landscapes, SSSIs, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Ramsar sites, ancient woodland, national nature reserves, local nature reserves, heritage coasts and brownfield registers.

A guide only, from official open data; it is not a planning search. Flood zones cover rivers and sea, not surface water.

Data © Crown copyright and others · sources and licences

Contains public sector information from planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG and local planning authorities), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The Historic England GIS Data contained in this material was obtained on 2026-11-03. The most publicly available up to date Historic England GIS Data can be obtained from HistoricEngland.org.uk.

© Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Flood Map for Planning, Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: Birmingham

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