Birmingham 2022: Communities 'shut out of direct involvement', panels reports

Birmingham 2022 organisers have "largely ignored" the city's diverse communities, an independent panel said.

They have been "shut out" of direct involvement, despite inclusivity being key to bringing the Games to the city, Birmingham Race Impact Group found.

A preoccupation with delivering infrastructure and not winning their support may well become an "undesirable" Games legacy, it added.

Birmingham 2022 said it was considering the recommendations.

Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) has published its findings on Wednesday just weeks before the Games begin in and around Birmingham on 28 July.

Its report comes after organisers were criticised last summer that not enough had been done to engage with diverse groups.

In April, after a meeting between organisers and local communities, Metro Mayor Andy Street said there was a "shared endeavour" to make sure people benefit from the Games long term.

BRIG said members assessed and evaluated the organising committee and other institutions in the city on their progress in delivering their race equality strategy.

Several areas require urgent action for organisers according to BRIG's "report card", including there being no race action plan, no response on how to redress racial disparities and how the Games diversity credentials are at risk.

"Lack of evidence of any meaningful progress leads us to conclude that the questions raised by communities of Birmingham remain largely unanswered and unresolved," Jagwant Johal, from BRIG, said.

"The report card seriously challenges the diversity credentials sought and projected by B2022 in providing a series of recommendations to the Commonwealth Games OC [organising committee] and its delivery partners."

The report said communities, "many with deep and unique Commonwealth connections", will feel that they have been "largely ignored" and organisers have not won their support.

"The conclusions of the report card suggest that the OC has been more preoccupied with its internal delivery structures than with winning the trust, confidence and support of Birmingham's diverse communities.

The failure by leaders to "transparently or convincingly to start to address deep and persistent racial inequalities in the city... may well become one of the more undesirable legacies of the Commonwealth Games".

In a statement, Birmingham 2022 said equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) was integral to delivering a successful Games, and though its proactive engagement programme with local communities "we recognised there were areas in which we had more work to do to deliver on all our EDI goals and therefore took steps to make improvements, one of which was to work with BRIG".

Over 41,000 people applied to be volunteers, nearly 6,000 people have already benefited from skills training, and over 100 community organisations have received funding from the Creative City Grants programme, the spokesperson said.

"Whilst we are disappointed with the conclusions reached within the report, we value BRIG's input and will carefully consider their recommendations, so that we maximise every opportunity to benefit as many people as possible from all the communities across Birmingham and the West Midlands," they added.

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