Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]

Lord Grocott Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grocott (Lab)]

My Lords, I am happy to add my support for the Bill. I imagine it must be quite pleasing to the organising committee and others to find that everyone who has contributed today in their different ways has expressed the same sentiment that has come from the city and region itself, across the political divide and across the region: support for this successful bid and a successful Games.

We have heard wise words from the noble Lord, Lord Coe, who described vividly the swing of emotions at the different stages in the development of the Games, which I dare say will be repeated, although perhaps we will learn from experience. We have heard from at least three natives of the city: the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, and my noble friends Lord Rooker and Lord Hunt. I cannot claim the same pedigree. I have been living and working in the West Midlands for only 54 years; they have a better claim to fame for the region than I have.

The success of the bid has been welcomed across the board, despite the daunting prospect of being four years hence rather than the normal seven. The Games will provide an opportunity to showcase the region and the city. Looking at the figures in bits of briefing that we have received, I noticed the figure of a global audience of 1.5 billion. How on earth they work these figures out I do not know but, even if they are a few million out either way, it is still a pretty staggering audience and something any commercial organisation would die for. Seventy-one countries and territories will take part and there will be 1 million spectators, which will presumably mean many visitors to the region. The Games will showcase our region, which is one of the pillars—one of those contemporary words we use these days—that the organising committee describes as important.

All this will encourage visitors to the city itself. As I said, I am not native to the city but I know it is a sporting city. The Games will be in July and August, which is at the height of the cricket season and the beginning of the football season. County cricket can be viewed, at Edgbaston, as can Premier League football. Thanks to Aston Villa, there might be others, although of course Aston Villa’s success is not universally welcomed across the city. Still, it is a sporting city.

It is also a vibrant city, as my good noble friend Lord Snape spelled out, especially the area of Canalside, where, believe me, there is some life on a Saturday night. There is a wondrous symphony hall. I hope people will not just be watching sporting events but will see what else goes on in the region. I should declare my interest: the splendid, wonderful and magnificent conservatoire, the result of work at Birmingham City University, whose board I was on until recently, is terrific and I hope anyone visiting the city visits it.

Of course, we hope that it is not just investment in the city that we are attracting but wider investment across the region—not just Perry Barr, where a lot of the investment will take place. My noble friend Lord Snape has already mentioned the Sandwell Aquatics Centre. Investment will come to different sports in Coventry, Leamington and Cannock Chase, to mention just three, and others.

As the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, said, the Bill is limited in coverage. I love the phrase he used: “I am now going to address those issues that are not in the Bill”. That gives us wondrous scope for the future. So I, too, will address a couple of issues not in the Bill, the main one being finance. The Bill is just 33 clauses long and only one refers to finance. I notice that in one of the briefing papers we got, the section on finance opens by saying:

“The funding of the Commonwealth Games overall is complex”.


I find finance complex at the best of times, but when the people promoting the Games say that it is complex I get a bit daunted.

Perhaps the Minister could let us know a bit more about that, as far as he is able. He has already said that the cost will be £778 million in total—a more specific figure than we have seen before; so far everything else has been guesstimates—with three-quarters coming from central government and the rest from the region itself, generated within the region. Could he explain to me how the balance works in specific cases? I am not at all clear about it, although maybe others are. Does the money go specifically to local authorities in the region from the centre? Does it go to the organising committee? How is it spread among them? Is it three-quarters in all respects? These issues may all sound like nuts and bolts but they are pretty important to the local areas concerned. How is the central funding disbursed?

My noble friend Lord Rooker mentioned security in particular. Like him, I have a close relative in the police force in the region. I hope that the cost for security will be borne by central government because, believe me, the police forces in the West Midlands really cannot take any more clobbering than they have had over the past few years. I will try to keep this as non-partisan as I can, but that is the truth.

The only slightly anxious word of warning that I bring into all this is to mention that we in the West Midlands, maybe with some justification, have a certain amount of paranoia about funding that comes to our region. I shall say a couple of sentences praying in aid the funding for HS2. It seems to us—stop me if I am wrong or being paranoid, neither of which would be the first time—that when Crossrail is built in London, which is a vastly expensive capital project, there are objections but expenditure goes through far more simply than that for building a high-speed line from London to Birmingham. When it benefits Birmingham, there seem to be objections all along the way, mile by mile. In fact, I think at least one of the candidates to be our next Prime Minister is not too struck on the scheme. It would be lovely if we had HS2 now, by the way; it would be of help to the Games. I do not want to be paranoid about that, but I will be paranoid about one more item while I am at it. The West Midlands is represented in this House by 27 Members—my noble fried Lord Rooker mentioned this—whereas London and the south-east have 275 Members. I know that London and the south-east are bigger than the West Midlands but they are not that much bigger.

Now that I have got those grouses out of the way, I will finish on an upbeat note. Without repeating what has been said, I believe that the legacy of the Games is hugely important. I spoke on the phone to the people on the organising committee last week and they gave absolute assurance on this front, saying that the legacy sub-committee of the main board is chaired by the chairman of that board. What is the input of central government in ensuring a proper legacy from these Games? I very much welcome the Bill and its importance to our region. I hope that people who come to the West Midlands will not just stay in Birmingham and watch the Games; I hope they will come to the wider reaches of the West Midlands. Perhaps while they are there they will visit the world-famous Ironbridge Gorge Museums, which is a lovely day out, and take a little trip on the Telford Steam Railway. Regardless of what they do, this is of potentially huge benefit to our area, and I welcome it and the Bill.