£20 million funding for Commonwealth Games still to be secured
More than £20 million worth of funding for the Commonwealth Games has still not been secured, it has been revealed – with Birmingham City Council likely to foot the bill in the short term.
Papers from this week’s resources overview and scrutiny committee show that only £54 million of an expected £75 million in ‘partner contributions’ has so far been raised by the council.
Partner contributions makes up nearly half of the £184.7 million that the region is expected to stump up to help pay for the Commonwealth Games, and was due to come from a variety of sources including Local Enterprise Partnerships, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and local universities.
However, it has now been revealed that the region is still some way short of achieving its total, with a £10 million contribution from the Midlands Engine and £10 million from local universities some of the largest sums still yet to be secured from organisations.
Papers note how “discussions with the various identified partners have been progressing at different speeds, with the main focus being on securing the two largest individual contributions, from the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP and the West Midlands Combined Authority,” which have now been secured.
However, the council also admitted that it would have to incur any costs for the time being, stating: “For those partner contributions where formal agreement has not yet been fully secured, dialogue will continue over the coming months with a view to reaching positive conclusions at the earliest opportunity, and it should be noted that the majority of expenditure to be funded through these contributions will be incurred by the council in 2020/21 and 2021/22.”
The item is set to be discussed during today’s resources overview and scrutiny meeting.
