Isn’t it great to see the Green Party holding their annual conference in Birmingham?
Aston University, which is hosting the event, certainly thinks so.
As we reported, Lucy Talbot, director at Conference Aston, the university’s conference business, said: “Outside of London, this is the most popular destination for meetings and conferences and events the size of this only help to reinforce this position.”
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In other words, there’s a virtuous circle. Holding a high-profile event in Birmingham helps convince organisers of future high-profile events that Birmingham is the place to go.
But however welcome the Greens are, their conference will be dwarfed by the Conservative Party Conference, from September 28 to October 1 in Birmingham’s International Convention Centre.
The Conservatives have been here before of course, in 2008, 2010 and 2012, and the Liberal Democrats visited in 2011.
But the days when the major parties come to Birmingham seem to be over. Birmingham City Council has decided it no longer wants major party conferences in the city.
What a short-sighted decision this is.
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As a rule, Birmingham has no guarantee that government, other national decision-makers or the national media, will listen to anything it has to say.
Of course, I believe the city’s voice should be heard, but “should” has nothing to do with it. The fact is that issues affecting London have a good chance of making it onto the BBC’s News at Ten, or into the Prime Minister’s briefing notes, when the same things happening in Birmingham might not.
And when the Government decides to take an interest in life outside the M25, there’s no guarantee that it will turn its gaze on the Midlands.
Consider proposals from George Osborne, the Chancellor, to create a “Northern Powerhouse” in the North, backed by Government investment in the transport network (Mr Osborne has promised to look favourably on calls from councils in the North for investment of £15 billion).
The Chancellor has been busy making speeches in Manchester and talking to the leaders of cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle. But none of this involves us.
It would be wrong to suggest Birmingham is always ignored. For example, the planned high speed rail line comes to Birmingham first – trains are due to run from 2026 – and won’t arrive in Manchester until 2032 or so.
But when we succeed in winning investment, it’s because we fought for it. Birmingham has to shout to make itself heard.
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And as the Northern Powerhouse proposal shows, we’re competing for attention with other parts of the country. That includes Manchester, which does a great job promoting itself – Manchester council leader Sir Richard Lease, a Labour councillor, is often held up as a role model of local government leadership by Tory government ministers.
Funnily enough, Manchester is hosting the Labour Party Conference at its Manchester Central venue this year, as well as the Conservatives in 2015. Liverpool has got Labour in 2016 and 2018.
Birmingham has decided it doesn’t want the conferences back, or at least, not at a cost of £1.5 million, which is apparently how much it costs to host each event. The money is used to subsidise the cost of hiring the ICC (which is actually owned by the council anyway, for the time being).
But there’s been no hint that the council has even looked at ways of reducing the subsidy.
If Manchester and Liverpool can afford to bring conferences to their city, why is it too difficult for Birmingham?
Some Labour MPs and councillors have bought party politics into the debate, complaining about the cost of holding a Tory event in the city.
But if Labour avoids Birmingham – which it has, so far – then local Labour politicians should be doing something about that, not complaining that David Cameron wants to come here.
According to Marketing Birmingham, this year’s conference will generate £20 million for the city’s economy. That sounds like a pretty good return for a £1.5 million investment, although it’s true that the money won’t go back to the council.
If you were to tell a major city with a bit of an image problem that you had a scheme guaranteed to get the Prime Minister or Opposition leader knocking on its door – along with the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet, senior journalists from every national outlet, the heads of top think tanks and charities and senior national business figures – you might expect it to jump at the chance.
Instead, Birmingham says “no thanks”.
Of course, parties will still hold conferences. Birmingham’s loss means more events going to Liverpool and Manchester. And you can be sure that Sir Richard Leese and Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson won’t be complaining about that, as they chat up visiting prime ministers and prime ministers-in-waiting.