Potential Northern Olympics: A Distraction from Inequality?

The North of England recently has launched a collective bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In a joint letter to the Newcastle alumna and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy, 11 Mayors and Leaders across the North have bid for a multi-city hosting of the games, in a step for fairer redistribution of major events across the country.

Key points of the bid outline that 1) the International Olympic Committee have moved toward multi-city hosting of the games. 2) The North has a proven track record of global event hosting e.g. the Commonwealth Games, Euros 2028, the Great North Run. 3) A games anchored in the north would be a generational opportunity to assist regeneration and help rebalance the economy.

Of the three times Britain has hosted the Olympics, it has always been in London. In an objective sense of fairness, someone else should have it! Any argument that the North doesn’t have the economy or infrastructure to pull off something like this should be a call to arms, not a capitulation to politics as usual. The opportunities this can create would be huge, showing the world that Britain outside the M25 has a lot to offer, to aim for, to champion. The North can boast abundant talent, world-class universities, and sporting excellence. Why not host it?

It will however take a lot, lot more to reconcile the structural imbalance in Britain’s economy. For all talk of ‘levelling up’, and with some important achievements in devolution there remains a lot to change. Britain’s government and institutions have continued to move Britain’s science and innovation from the rest of the country to London, Oxford, and Cambridge. Investment in transport infrastructure remains effectively forbidden outside of central government, except in London, and the UK government has invested in and around London and almost nowhere else in England. Stoke-on-Trent has a larger tech sector than Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton, and Milton Keynes, but you won’t hear a white paper for their centrally planned growth. Without further change, the unequal imbalance of our economy will continue to perpetuate.

That being said, it’s important to be cautious about the complexities of regeneration, particularly with the legacy of the 2012 London games. While undeniable in its impact in attracting investment, promised affordable housing faltered on delivery, and social exclusion and gentrification were ‘turbocharged’. 

Looking closer to home also, what might the effect of cataclysmic money have on existing inequalities? In the 2011 census Gosforth had a life expectancy of 83. Westgate ward in the West End was 71. Of 15,000 recently built Manchester city-centre homes, none were classed as ‘affordable’. While hosting the Games would be an unmistakable opportunity, we cannot ignore the ever-present challenge of local and regional inequality.