MP Khalid Mahmood is pressing city council chiefs to "totally rethink" plans for a £550 million homes scheme in the heart of Perry Barr after it was ruled out as the athletes' village for Birmingham 2022.

The landmark project was meant to house 6,500 athletes and officials taking part in the global sporting event before being refitted and turned into 1,400 homes for sale and rent.

But, already facing a race against time, the scheme was derailed by the impact of Covid-19, said the council and the Games organising committee in a joint announcement. (Tuesday)

Artist impression of how the Games village should have looked

Instead athletes will be put up in hotels and university campus accommodation in Birmingham, Warwick and the NEC.

Now Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr, wants the council to seize the opportunity to turn 'disaster to triumph' by revisiting the plans.

"It needs to be redesigned. What Perry Barr and the city does not need is more expensive one-bed flats. The original scheme included too many one-bedroom flats, that would have been a disaster for Perry Barr.

"There were also issues around safety and maintenance, and the potential for anti social behaviour.

"Now the council has the chance to look again."

Labour's Khalid Mahmood

His comments come as city council leader Cllr Ian Ward confirms he has agreed to face the city's resources overview and scrutiny committee next month to discuss the issue.

He will go before the cross party group on September 10 to answer questions about the decisions made, progress on the scheme and the cost implications.

In a statement the council said plans to transform Perry Barr will continue despite losing its status as a Games village. "This means that the housing regeneration scheme due to be built can be to a residential specification from the outset, rather than having to be retrofitted as domestic dwellings post-Games time."

Last year a BirminghamLive story revealed that out of the planned village development of 1,400 homes, there were to be 254 'affordable' flats, including 161 for elderly residents, and another 58 affordable three and four bed homes for families. The bulk of properties - more than 1,000 - would be for sale on the open market.

Originally due to cost £496m, costs had gone up by £91.8m, we learned in March, though the council pledged to claw back £25m of that.

The council has also pledged now that the extra costs involved in housing athletes at three locations around the city "would be delivered within the overall Games budget of £778 million."

Building work is well under way at the site of the village, as these photos taken this week illustrate.

Construction work at the village site, taken August 12 2020

That suggests a major rethink might not be possible.

It was a theme picked up by the city's Conservative group of councillors.

They have demanded the chance to scrutinise the goings on that led to this week's "disastrous" announcement about the Games village.

Cllr Robert Alden, group leader, said the city's residents needed and deserved answers, particularly about how much has been sunk into the project that will now go to waste.

CGI of plot 10 at the athletes' village in Perry Barr

In a statement, the group said: "The Athletes Village, which Council Leader Ian Ward committed to building for the Commonwealth Games in 2022 as his ‘legacy’ for the city, has now been abandoned, with the government stepping into to ensure athletes can be accommodated during the Games.

"A revised business case for the Village was brought to the Council’s Cabinet in  March  that showed a £92m overspend."

A total of £226m has already been spent on the project up to the end of March. More land is still to be purchased to complete the scheme.

The council also signed off further contracts relating to the scheme, based on the pre-Games completion date, as recently as March, said the statement.

Cllr Alden, who represents Erdington, said: “Labour have poured hundreds of millions of pounds into a scheme that they have been failing to manage properly...and are now committed to spending hundreds of millions more through contracts they rushed through without scrutiny.

"While housing is clearly need both in this and other parts of the city, how much more could have been built without the Council Leader putting council tax payers of this city on the hook for a village that will stand entirely empty come the Games?

Birmingham City Council Leader Ian Ward answering questions about the future of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with the event's CEO, Ian Reid in the wake of the announcement that the event would no longer have a bespoke athletes' village nearby
Birmingham City Council Leader Ian Ward answering questions about the future of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with the event's CEO, Ian Reid.

"University accommodation provides a cost effective and low risk alternative to the village and we are fortunate that in Birmingham we have plenty of good standard student rooms - and that is why we suggested that approach from the outset, which would have freed up millions to be spent on providing decent family homes across the city.

"Instead Cllr Ward’s insistence on making housing his ‘legacy’ from the Games has actually resulted in fewer houses being built, at higher cost and over a longer time - and will leave a building site next to the Stadium when the events are taking place.”

A council spokesperson reiterated that the homes programme and regeneration plans are still going ahead, but the village project is being reviewed as a result of the change to its status "to ensure we maximise the benefit for the people of Birmingham."