Digbeth, Birmingham, is undergoing rapid transformation. The arrival of the BBC at Typhoo Wharf, major housing and infrastructure investment, and the designation of a Digbeth Growth Zone have brought significant resources and attention to an area whose cultural identity was built not by institutions but by artists, makers, social enterprises and informal networks operating at low cost over decades. This paper asks a pointed question: when cultural communities are recognised as assets within regeneration narratives, does that recognition translate into meaningful influence over the decisions that shape their future?

Drawing on co-creative research undertaken as part of the AHRC Creative Communities Community Innovation Practitioner programme at City-REDI, University of Birmingham, the paper presents empirical evidence from 25 stakeholder interviews, four participatory workshops and walking conversations with cultural practitioners, planners, policymakers and grassroots organisations across 2025–26. It examines the gap between stated commitments to community participation and the practical governance mechanisms — planning obligations, affordable workspace policy, local plan provisions, anchor institution behaviour — that determine whether creative communities stay or are displaced.

The paper argues that participation in regeneration remains largely consultative rather than constitutive. It identifies the conditions under which cultural knowledge moves from being heard to being treated as evidence in planning and investment decisions, and offers transferable lessons for devolved urban governance in the West Midlands and beyond.