- Bore steps down as leader of Birmingham city council
- Labour politician presided over transformation of UK’s second city
Sir Albert Bore is a Labour politician who has often divided opinion – so much so that even within his own party there have been regular leadership challenges during his tenure. “One every year,” he estimates.
But on Tuesday December 1, after a total of 16 years across two stints as leader of Birmingham city council, the 69-year-old closed the door on his spacious office for the last time.
During his three decades in politics, Bore has been used to tension and pressure, but things came to a head in October, when two of his cabinet members quit within a week and others threatened to follow. After announcing he “wasn’t going anywhere”, just days later he resigned.
“I began to become the story,” he says. “That is not a position to be in and my view was if these matters were not going to subside then it would be better for Birmingham if I was to give up the leadership of the council.”
Bore had been in the firing line since Sir Bob Kerslake’s damning report into Europe’s largest local authority was published last December, in the wake of the controversial Trojan horse letter about extremism in Birmingham schools.
Kerslake highlighted deep-seated problems at the council, including “a blurring of the roles between members and officers”.
Bore’s parting observations are frank: “I inherited the Trojan horse issue. I didn’t create it. If I had been a directly elected mayor, rather than a council-appointed leader, my guess is those leadership remarks [in the Kerslake Report] would not have been made.
“The leadership of a council like this is not about micro-managing, but about trying to push the local authority into doing new things and things in different ways, while being motivational,” he adds. “My track record on that has been pretty good. If I had simply been trying to micro-manage this authority, the bigger-picture stuff would not have emerged.”
It is a fair point. Omitting the Kerslake Report, Bore’s tenure has seen great strides and rewards in terms of city centre regeneration and inward investment. Tellingly, he is widely respected by Birmingham’s property folk – hardly a left-wing crowd.
Simon Robinson, head of BNP Paribas Real Estate in the city, says: “Sir Albert did a lot for property and will be missed. He is a great supporter of the economic benefits that can be brought into a city by infrastructure improvements which lead to private sector investment and development.”
Bore’s hand can be seen in city landmarks including the Mailbox, National Indoor Arena, Brindleyplace and, more recently, the redevelopment of New Street station, Grand Central, Arena Central and Paradise Circus.
He enthusiastically embraced HS2, even though it involved the loss of prime logistics land. “This is not about things leaching down to London,” he insists. “This is about positioning Birmingham as a major, accessible, city so that international firms like Deutsche Bank, BMW and HSBC will relocate here.”
The battle for inward investment has been mostly with Manchester and Bore admits that the Midlands is playing catch-up with its northern rival. “It is going to take a few years for us to get the Midlands better positioned because there has not been the willingness [by local authorities] to work in the way we are now working,” he says. “But if you strip away some issues around the northern powerhouse, there is a lot of rhetoric and sometimes not a lot of substance.”
Bore believes the launch of a Midlands equivalent will set a marker for Birmingham’s new direction of travel. The event will be the first time the spotlight is shone on Bore’s successor, John Clancy (see box), who will be under pressure to ensure the city does not lose its momentum.
Though he is diplomatically silent, Bore’s expression suggests there is no love lost between the outgoing and incoming leaders.
He does, however, have some advice for Clancy: “Listen, discuss and learn, and possibly modify one’s views on one thing or another. There will be a learning curve and he will be exposed to all sorts of conversations and ideas that were not part of his previous agenda and he will learn from that.”
As for Bore, he rules out standing as a future mayor as part of the devolution agenda and says he wants to take time to “sit and reflect”. He says he has had various offers, but does not want to rush into anything.
“I am not leaving Birmingham, I am still the councillor for Ladywood and I will maintain a European agenda, my mandate runs until 2018.”
Whether this really is goodbye to the Birmingham city council leadership, or merely au revoir, remains to be seen. After all, it would not be the first time he’s come back.
The new leader
John Clancy was elected the new leader of Birmingham city council last week, beating closest rival Penny Holbrook by just one vote.
The council member for Quinton ward took the reins of Birmingham’s ruling Labour group earlier this week and his appointment is seen as a fresh start for the local authority.
An unknown in property circles, who has no previous leadership experience and a background in law and teaching, Clancy will be responsible for the council’s shrinking £3bn budget.
He says: “Sir Albert has always put Labour values at the centre of his vision for Birmingham – he has brought world-class investment to the city and overseen the longest period of regeneration in the city’s history.”
The former backbencher has promised more structural reform within the council leadership and will continue with the implementation of the Kerslake Report reforms.
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
