A series of shiny, pristine apartment blocks lie beside a busy Birmingham road in the heart of a bustling city district – but there’s one big problem. They are all empty.
Birmingham City Council agreed in 2017 to become hosts of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, after previously selected Durban in South Africa pulled out two years after it had originally been chosen. As part of the deal, the city authority agreed to build an athletes’ village in Perry Barr, close to the Alexander Stadium, able to home some 6,500 competitors and officials for the 11-day sporting spectacular in the summer of 2022.
The plan was to build apartments on the Birmingham City University site in Perry Barr, then to provide a legacy from the games, to turn them into much-needed apartments, with hundreds of them set to be ‘affordable’. It was even thought the scheme would turn a profit for the council.
Read more: ‘What a waste’ – reaction as hundreds flats at ‘athletes’ village’ remain empty
But a damning report released this week has said the shortfall of money received from sales at the site will leave a bill for taxpayers of up to £152 million. Given the debt is spread over 40 years, the council’s own report says the debt will cost £8 million to £9 million to service per year – with a total cost of £320 million to £360 million.
Conservative councillors have even claimed the overall debt could be an eye-watering £688 million – some £17.2 million a year over 40 years. as it says money generated from sales of blocks of apartments, has already been allocated to the bankrupt council’s general debt, not specifically to pay back the £300 million or so pounds it borrowed to build the delayed games village.
Take a wonder down to Aldridge Road in Perry Barr and you’re met with blocks of apartments ranging from five storeys to 15-storeys high. All gleaming but unused, like an abandoned ghost village.
There’s red, cream and sand-coloured brick blocks, and more tucked behind with pathways, manicured gardens, even a pub, the old Hare of the Dog in Franchise Street, one of a handful of original buildings within the site still standing.
What was meant to be some 968 homes, a mix of flats for sale and rent, some ‘affordable’ housing and assisted living apartments, is now set to see 487 ‘affordable’ homes for rent and sale via new owners, Legal & General, plus 213 social housing apartments retained by the city council. And an as yet-unconfirmed assisted living block.
And this is just part of Phase 1 of the Perry Barr Regeneration Scheme, with more homes set to come on site and on neighbouring sites in years to come. The hope is their development, cost and sales will operate more smoothly