BVSC is delighted to announce that we’ve found a new, permanent home right in the heart of Birmingham – and we look forward to welcoming you through its doors very soon.

After negotiating the sale of our long-term base at 138 Digbeth in 2022 (as part of the Beorma Quarter development) we were able to secure the purchase of Latham House in Paradise Street. The building – originally a showroom for Daimler Cars - is located opposite the Town Hall and very close to the new Paradise Development.

BVSC purchased the building after developing a strategic cross-sector relationship with its previous owners Hortons Estates, who had approached us for help in building on their well-established corporate community relations.

Our ambition is to create a new hub for the city’s voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector, placing the sector at very heart of developments in Birmingham. The hub’s development will be based on ongoing discussions with our members, and with work already done to develop a vision created through a recent co-production exercise facilitated by building development experts Entec Si.

On acquiring the building, BVSC’s chief executive Brian Carr, said: “We are delighted to have been able to secure such a strong and visible asset on behalf of Birmingham’s community and voluntary groups. Community action is at the heart of life in Birmingham, and Latham House offers us a real opportunity to make this ever more visible by creating a lasting presence for the entire VCFSE sector in the city centre. We’re grateful to Hortons Estates for their support in helping us to make this vision a reality.

"Our aim now is to create a welcoming, inclusive space that will allow a diverse range of organisations and volunteers to work, meet and make strong connections so the city’s voluntary sector can access all the opportunities Birmingham has to offer now and in the future.”

Lisa Martinali, Chair of BVSC’s Trustee Board said: "The acquisition of Latham House by BVSC is great news for the organisation and for the wider voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector in Birmingham. The Board and I look forward to working with BVSC staff and members to develop this into a great resource for our community. My thanks go to the BVSC team who have worked so hard to secure this asset for the sector, and to Horton's Estates for their generous support of BVSC's work."

Steve Benson, chief executive of Hortons, said: “We are pleased to complete the strategic sale of Latham House, which provides the opportunity to recycle funds into other projects. Hortons has been highly acquisitive in the last twelve months, investing in new industrial/logistics estates in the Midlands. It has enabled us to develop a balanced portfolio that includes six million sq ft of office, industrial, retail and leisure properties.”

Work will begin later this year to reconfigure the building and we will be announcing developments regularly through our weekly e-bulletins. If you are a VCFSE organisation interested in utilising the building, please contact us at [email protected] and watch this space for further updates. 

Related articles:

One of the UK’s largest voluntary sector support organisations snaps up Birmingham city centre building (The Business Desk: 26/07/23)

BVSC moves from Digbeth into new City centre offices (BVSC Website: 08/06/2022)

Exciting news from BVSC - we're on the move! (BVSC Website: 11/04/2022)