Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]

Lord Rooker Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rooker (Lab)]

My Lords, I agree—and no doubt I will with future speakers—with every contribution that we have heard so far. I will not repeat them, but the sage advice we have just listened to from someone who has been at the coalface should be taken on board really seriously.

This will be a big event in the West Midlands—one of the biggest we have ever had—but 2022 will be a busy year: it is a general election year; there is a nine-month festival of Britain proposed for 2022, which the Government plan will transform the whole year; and so this is not just a one-off. Therefore, it is really important that we keep our eye on the ball so that we do not get deviation on to other issues.

The Games will be a good showcase of the West Midlands for millions. Although the Games will be centred on the city of Birmingham, it is a West Midlands enterprise—the great region of the country that has never really pulled its weight in the way that other regions have. In this case, more than one local authority is involved, and there has been a coming together, which is good news. However, time is short, as has been said, simply because of Durban pulling out.

The city council’s finances are not good. For several years now, there has been an oversight committee on the governance of Birmingham City Council, put in by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. I understand from reading the press that it has just finished but that it has recommended that there be another oversight committee, simply because of the issues that have arisen in the past. As such, the delivery of this exercise needs watching very carefully indeed from the centre, because it is the Government who will get it in the neck.

Without going into detail, I reinforce the points my noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath made. Trying to get some information has proven to be incredibly difficult. My bits have come from a couple of items in the Birmingham Post a few weeks ago. I do not live in Birmingham any more, but I have close connections there, including family. There is complete ignorance in the city council about your Lordships’ House. At least 20 Members of your Lordships’ House have detailed connections with Birmingham; the cream of them are here today, but not all are present. But the fact is that there has been no connection—no phone calls or emails over the last few days. Even the speakers list, which is publicly available—you can check who is putting their name down—seemed to be unknown. We want to help, as we told the Minister, but we need a good flow of information. That is my only negative point. It is meant to be positive, because things have to improve from now on if we are going to help. Members of the Commons would not put up with this, because they represent people, but we represent ourselves. Some of them will have much more detailed questions than we would put.

I agree with what is in the Bill; the commercial rights have to be protected. There will be enough spivs and crooks in the West Midlands trying to exploit this, and therefore it is important that there are legal barriers to protect the sponsors. Sponsors, big and small, need protecting. The transport improvements, some of which might be controversial, are nevertheless much needed. The Bill also brings government funding. Like my noble friend Lord Hunt, I was not clear about what the legacy is, simply because we have not been told. What is the supreme legacy of this exercise that the city council and its partners want for their 25% share? That is not a small amount of money, and we are talking about a legacy that is to last for decades.

It has not been mentioned so far, but there will have to be a large and tightly run security envelope for this exercise. I trust that the resources will be made available to the brilliant West Midlands Police—I declare an interest as I have a close family member who is a serving officer there. That is important; it was a key element in the Olympic Games in London. I know that things were different then, but the fact is that there are nutcases galore out there, and therefore the security needs to be considered and tightly run.

The stadium—this is my local bit—is located in Perry Park, in my former constituency. In fact, it was my local park when I was growing up as a kid. Last Friday, I attended a meeting at the stadium, where the changes to the stadium, both permanent and temporary, were to be outlined. I went there purely to listen. The proposals for the stadium are awesome—there is no question about that; it will leave a fantastic sporting legacy, and the stadium can be used for things other than sport. That is the point about it—the upgrading of the stadium makes it really flexible. However, as I listened, I was a little disappointed to discover that the Friends of Perry Park had been utterly ignored over the past few months as they were trying to be helpful by finding out what was happening. From my point of view, it was no good to sit there, listening to the dozen bosses from Arup say, “Oh well, the consultation starts today”. To be honest, if you are on the ball, trying to bring local people and opinion-formers along with you, you do not wait until the last minute to bring them on board, even in an informal fashion. I hope that that has been taken on board after the meeting. It makes good sense to do that, as the noble Lord, Lord Coe, said.

It is an urban environment, but it is very outer city. It is about a mile and a half from the city boundary, most of it built in the 1920s and 1930s. Until then, it was farmland. It has mainly semi-detached houses and a very few tower blocks. A lot of industries disappeared from the area, but there is a community.

I was very pleased when the home of Birchfield Harriers moved from its previous stadium into the park, but not everybody was pleased. When I went for a tree-digging ceremony, I was lobbied by constituents—I will not name the road they were from, because that is not fair, but it is on the other side of the canal— complaining against it. People who live around a park think it is their back garden. Well, it is not. That was a difficulty. I was really upset.

In the old stadium, I remember in the 1950s seeing E McDonald Bailey, the famous sprinter. I am that old that I can remember that. It was an important part of growing up in that northern part of Birmingham.

As I said, the city will get a maximum flexi-venue of very high grade, and I think it should be exploited. I know that people who live around stadiums, such as the football grounds in the city, get pressure on parking and noise, but this is a high-grade, futuristic enterprise which I think we should benefit from. My noble friend Lord Snape will probably talk about Sandwell, which should benefit similarly from the aquatic provision and diving centre.

The Bill is important. I support it. My noble friend Lord Hunt made the point about the legacy in housing. When I grew up, the site to be used was a small school, Birchfield school. In recent years, it was part of the University of Central England—a Birmingham Polytechnic site—which has been virtually flattened. It is a good location. It is right next to a suburban railway station as well as a main feeder road into the city and a motorway, so it will be premium-priced housing, but it should be a mixed community. You cannot enable that unless you ensure that there is enough social and affordable housing as part of the exercise. I wish the exercise and the Bill all the best.