Commonwealth Games was a mistake for Birmingham, says advisor

Max Caller, a former advisor to Birmingham City Council, has said the city hosting the Commonwealth Games was a mistake given the authority’s financial problems. 

Caller said the event last summer had been a “challenge too far” for a council struggling. 

Birmingham City Council will stop all but essential spending amid an outstanding £760m bill to settle equal pay claims. 

On Tuesday, the council announced it was effectively bankrupt. It is the largest local authority in Europe and has an £87m hole in its budget this year and might have to spend up to £100m to fix a botched IT system. 

Caller told the Today programme that the 2022 Games had diverted the authority’s focus away from addressing historical issues. 

“The problem with councils that are in trouble is they just need to focus on getting better, rather than trying to do nice new things,” he said.

“There is a limit to the amount of political and managerial capacity and if you’re spending time doing Commonwealth Games you cannot cope with the serious problems that you already face.

“The advice that I gave, and that others gave, to officers and members at the time was that this was likely to be a challenge too far.”