One year on - were Commonwealth Games a winner for Birmingham?

Were the Commonwealth Games worth it?, writes Henrietta Brealey.

It's the question of the moment as we hit one year on from Birmingham 2022 - further fuelled, of course, by the Victorian Government's shock decision to pull out of hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games due to some quite extraordinary budget inflation.

At the Chamber, it's a question that we've been asking local businesses - repeatedly. Over the last three years, we have undertaken multiple surveys of businesses, our Games Business Barometer, looking at their perceptions of the Commonwealth Games.

And it's strikingly positive. In our latest poll, conducted just this summer, of the 200-plus businesses taking part, 80 per cent reported seeing an immediate positive impact from the Games on the city-region and almost a third reported a direct positive impact on their businesses.

We also spoke to organisations that got stuck in to the Games experience, conducting interviews with organisations that were partners or suppliers to Birmingham 2022, or Games visitors, ranging from SME manufacturers to hospitality firms and large professional services firms. They spoke about the benefits to employee engagement, partnerships built and maintained post-Games, and, of course, new business won.

This positivity is backed up by the official stats. The West Midlands welcomed a record 141.2 million visitors in 2022 with the Commonwealth Games a key driver, all the more impressive when you think we were still coming out of pandemic restrictions at the start of the year. The official interim evaluation report on the Games pointed to over £870m GVA contributed to the UK economy up to January 2023 and over half of that coming into the West Midlands.

The pipeline of businesses interested in investment in the region built up by the West Midlands Growth Company through the Games' Business & Tourism Programme continues to bear fruit. I met just two of the high growth potential tech businesses who chose this region thanks to it, just a couple of weeks ago. The programme is designed to secure more than £650 million of new overseas investment into the UK and create £7 million of additional export deals until 2027.

Just this week we had the announcement that Visit Britain will be moving its HQ to Brum. Is the Commonwealth Games the only reason for this? Of course not - Brum has many brilliant strengths. But it will certainly have given the pitch the edge and made for a very compelling narrative.

There are examples all over the place. Alexander Stadium, as well as continuing to host major sporting events, is now home to Birmingham City University's sports science and exercise courses. They've invested an additional £5m in facilities for training the next generation of leading coaches and sports therapists. The University of Birmingham, who hosted the squash and hockey during the Games, will be hosting the World Blind Games this summer.

Last month, United by 2022, the Games legacy charity, announced that it had received funding to continue five legacy programmes through to 2025, with activity covering volunteering, sports, the arts, social value and youth leadership development.

Starting on Friday, Birmingham Festival 23 will take over Centenary Square for nine days of entirely free arts, culture and entertainment, building on the success of the Games festival activity.

And more to come - a further £70m of unspent Games funding has been returned to the region to support legacy and boost tourism and trade.

At the Chamber, we worked consistently through the run up to the Games to connect local businesses to opportunities and essential information, from procurement and supply chain through to travel planning. We love local and we also go global, giving our members the tools to trade internationally.

We used the Games as a springboard for building relationships with partners in Commonwealth nations, signing five formal memorandums of understanding on facilitating bilateral trade and building plenty more relationships.

One MoU is with Gold Coast Trade and Investment, the 2018 Games host city-region. We already have a member setting up their first overseas office in the Gold Coast thanks to the support they received through this partnership.

Alongside the positivity in our research, we did find a resounding question - what happens next? Over two fifths of the businesses we surveyed were interested in contributing to the social legacy of the Games. Several interview participants and a number businesses taking part in discussions at our Quarterly Business Report briefing last week asked the same questions: “How do we get involved?” and “um...is anything actually happening?” Few were aware of the activity underway.

Nothing is ever perfect and there will no doubt be things we look back and learn from or that need an extra push to drive forward along the way. But this is certainly clear - the further away we get from Birmingham 2022 the more important it becomes for Games partners to continue to collaborate, join the dots and communicate their ongoing impact.

For me? When I think back to those sunsoaked days last summer, the overwhelming legacy is one of pride. The region came together to do the seemingly impossible - deliver a huge international sporting event during a pandemic, train strikes, labour market shortages, supply chain disruption - and do it so bloody well (and under budget I might add) that Brum icon Ozzy Osbourne moved medical mountains to take part in the closing ceremony.

With the Victorian government's decision, it could be easy to let that cynicism seep in and colour the legacy of Birmingham 2022. Don't let it. It was blooming marvellous.

Henrietta Brealey is chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce

This column first appeared in the Birmingham Post