Cost of failed Channel 4 bid revealed

The total cost of the unsuccessful bid to attract Channel 4 to the region was £282,000.

The figure was revealed by Birmingham City Council leader Cllr Ian Ward, who confirmed that the council had contributed £52,000.

The West Midlands Combined Authority and Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership also contributed significant amounts of money to the bid.

There was also financial support from Coventry City Council and the local enterprise partnerships covering Coventry and Warwickshire, and the Black Country in the lead-up to the shortlists being decided.

Cllr Ward said: “These are large sums of money, but what I would say that in entering any bidding process you have to spend money and there is always the risk that money will not provide a return.

“In the case of the Commonwealth Games, we managed to win that bid so the money that was spent on the bid was money well spent.”

Channel 4 picked Leeds ahead of Birmingham and Greater Manchester for its “national headquarters”, although the majority of its staff will remain in London. The broadcaster will move around 200 staff to Leeds while also opening creative hubs in Bristol and Glasgow, employing around 50 people in each.

Cllr Ward added: “If you think back 18 months ago when Coventry were bidding to be City of Culture, we were bidding to host the Commonwealth Games and we also had a bid across the West Midlands as a whole to try and land Channel 4 – at the time, people didn’t believe we would manage to land all three of them.

“That has proven to be correct but I would say that two out of three ain’t bad.”