By Nick Horner

Copyright birminghammail

A historic district in Birmingham which has been given World Craft City status is being placed at risk by the sale of a series of building, claim Conservative councillors. Birmingham City Council is looking to sell a series of properties known as the Café Block in the Jewellery Quarter as it grapples with its ongoing financial issues. The block runs from numbers 36 to 41 in Vyse Street and continues around the corner from numbers 2 to 6 in Hylton Street. Read more: Eight city neighbourhoods to get multi-millions for ‘patriot-led’ revival The buildings are home to a number of jewellers, including those that make jewellery and help give the quarter its name, but also a café , an aesthetics clinic and other trades. At a cabinet committee meeting dealing with sales of council properties on Tuesday (September 23), the cabinet agreed to sell off the buildings despite concerns raised by the Conservative opposition leader, Cllr Robert Alden ( Erdington ). The Conservatives say the building sell off puts the World Craft City ‘at risk’ but also risks the Jewellery Quarter’s ‘unique ecosystem of businesses forever’. They say the building sell-off puts ‘tenants’ livelihoods at risk’. The opposition councillors say the businesses in the Jewellery Quarter are linked, with a piece of jewellery visiting 20 or more different specialists before hitting a shop shelf. Cllr Ken Wood, Deputy Lord Mayor (Sutton Walmley and Minworth, Cons.) said: “If you remove any of those stages then the whole thing can disappear.” The Conservatives have said they will call in the sell-off decision. Cllr Wood said: “The Jewellery Quarter is key to Birmingham ’s historic identity as the workshop of the world. “The city has long deserved the recognition it was granted this year when, on the back of the Jewellery Quarter’s heritage businesses – independent, family-owned and operated – we were granted World Craft City status. “Not only is that recognition at risk if the council sells off these unique buildings, but the Jewellery Quarter’s identity will also be at risk. If the tradespeople who work in these listed buildings are moved out – even supposedly temporarily – there is a strong chance that we will lose this unique ecosystem of small businesses forever.” Read more: Libraries and community centres saved from axe after £500k bail out He continued: “The impact the unmaking of the Jewellery Quarter would have on the local economy and jobs can not be understated. “Generations of business, relationships, training and knowledge will be lost if the council does not reverse its current decision. “Not only will this affect the jewellery industry, but the hospitality industry too, which benefits from passing trade and the reputation of the Jewellery Quarter, as does the local property market. “If we do not protect the jewellery manufacturing industry in the Jewellery Quarter, then, like a vandal removing a single cog from a watch, the Jewellery Quarter will cease to turn.” Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp , click the link to join The Conservatives said traders and others in the area have raised concerns about the decision to sell off the buildings. They claim there has been a “lack of consultation, the absence of an economic risk assessment for other businesses, the refusal to put rental units back on the market prior to sale, and the failure to make use of the full apprenticeship levy available to local institutions” as signs of a potential “prejudicing of the decision” to sell the units. At the cabinet meeting Cllr Alden had challenged the council’s Labour leader , Cllr John Cotton (Glebe Farm and Tile Cross) over the sale of the asset. Cllr Alden said: “Obviously, the Jewellery Quarter this year was given World Craft [City] status and I do think we have an obligation as a council to be really making sure we do all we can to protect it and enhance that.” He said there was a need to a ‘comprehensive view’ of all the assets the council owns in the Jewellery Quarter and taking a ‘holistic’ view of which are not vital for the retention of city’s jewellery industry and reputation for it. Cllr Alden said: “We want to retain that specialness of the Jewellery Quarter. The last thing we want to do is end up having a Jewellery Quarter that didn’t have a jewellery trade in it anymore.” Get the latest BirminghamLive news direct to your inbox Birmingham City Council’s principal surveyor spoke at the cabinet meeting and said that piece of work was done two years ago. He said: “The piece of work we have in place is very much about reutilising some of these buildings and repurposing them entirely for indigenous uses.” He said the council has a lot of assets in disrepair but it is looking to retain more than it disposes of ‘by a considerable margin’. He added: “There’s a deep-rooted commitment to retaining property in the Jewellery Quarter and certainly not undermining efforts of the indigenous industries that are present.” Then Cllr John Cotton, on behalf of the cabinet, agreed the sale. Birmingham City Council has been approached for a statement regarding the sale and its impact on the Jewellery Quarter and traders there but has yet to respond.