Calls to rethink ‘village’ after 2022 Games blow
BIRMINGHAM MP Khalid Mahmood is pressing city council chiefs to “totally rethink” plans for a £550 million homes scheme in the heart of Perry Barr after it was ruled out as the athletes’ village for Birmingham 2022. The landmark project was meant to house 6,500 athletes and officials taking part in the global sporting event before being refitted and turned into 1,400 homes for sale and rent.
But, already facing a race against time, the scheme was derailed by the impact of Covid-19, as reported in last week’s Birmingham Post.
Instead athletes will be put up in hotels and university campus accommodation in Birmingham, Warwick and the NEC.
Now Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr, wants the council to seize the opportunity to turn ‘‘disaster to triumph’’ by revisiting the plans.
“It needs to be redesigned. What Perry Barr and the city does not need is more expensive one-bed flats.
“The original scheme included too many one-bedroom flats, that would have been a disaster for Perry Barr. “There were also issues around safety and maintenance, and the potential for anti social behaviour. “Now the council has the chance to look again.”
In a statement the council said plans to transform Perry Barr will continue despite losing its status as a Games village.
“This means that the housing regeneration scheme due to be built can be to a residential specification from the outset, rather than having to be retrofitted as domestic dwellings post-Games time.”
Last year it was revealed that out of the planned village development of 1,400 homes, there were to be 254 ‘affordable’ flats and another 58 affordable three- and four-bed homes for families. The bulk of properties – more than 1,000 – would be for sale on the open market.
Originally due to cost £496 million, costs had gone up by £91.8 million, we learned in March, though the council pledged to claw back £25 million of that.
The council has also pledged that the extra costs involved in housing athletes at three locations around the city “would be delivered within the overall Games budget of £778 million”.
Building work is well under way at the site of the village which suggests a major rethink might not be possible.
The city’s Conservative group has also demanded the chance to scrutinise the decision that led to last week’s “disastrous” announcement about the Games village.
Cllr Robert Alden, group leader, said the city’s residents deserved answers, particularly about how much has been sunk into the project that will now go to waste.
A total of £226 million has already been spent on the project up to the end of March. More land is still to be purchased to complete the scheme.
The council also signed off further contracts relating to the scheme, based on the pre-Games completion date, as recently as March, said the statement.
Cllr Alden, who represents Erdington, said: “Labour have poured hundreds of millions of pounds into a scheme that they have been failing to manage properly and are now committed to spending hundreds of millions more through contracts they rushed through without scrutiny.”
A council spokesperson reiterated that the homes programme and regeneration plans are still going ahead, but the village project is being reviewed as a result of the change to its status “to ensure we maximise the benefit for the people of Birmingham”.