| Description | An interview with Sir Michael LYONS, a married man with two sons, one daughter, who is a Chief Exec., Birmingham City Council, born in London and now living in Birmingham. Sir Michael LYONS’s father was a Fitter/ animal warden, born in England and his mother a School secretary born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
'LYONS, Sir Michael MS2255/2/150 Logged by Simon Cotterill & Helen Lloyd.
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Born in Maternity Hospital in West Ham, East London on 15th September 1949. Looking after animals in the Royal Veterinary College. Treating animals from zoos and circuses.
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By age 5 moved to a flat in East London.
50" “Downstairs family were at the least socially challenged”.
Father working at the West Ham Greyhound Stadium. Being very excited when taken to work with father at weekends.
2.33 “In terms of social class we were very clearly a working class family. My mother didn't work, my father worked with his hands”.
2.58 “I guess you'd call them aspiring working-class”.
Extended family on both sides living on the same street in East London.
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Parents being some of the first working class families to want to buy their own house.
1958 - Moved to Sutton Court Road, East London. Elderly lady sitting tenant.
Predominant values when growing up. Resentment from mother's family that she had wanted to improve herself.
3.38 “I am literally the first child in either side of the family that went to university”.
War taking Mother into work.
Starting school at a brand new infant school.
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Being shocked when having to move to a junior school in a grim Victorian building.
23" “A school which had very low expectations of its pupils… a place of containment rather than development”.
Primary school education being split. Moving to a better school that expected children to reach grammar school. Headmaster convincing parents he should go to grammar school.
2.40 “This was seen as outside the norms of the family”.
At the time wanting to go to technical college with mates.
3.30 “Going to grammar school was definitely a dividing event”.
1961 - Started at Stratford Grammar. Grammar schools in the 1960s. Formal gowns.
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Brilliant teachers.
1.57 “Not an outstanding scholar…I'm not a very disciplined learner”.
School being a moderated model of the public school.
Young teachers making school quite radical. Wanting to stay on at the sixth form. Big family conference.
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Setting up a cinema society in the sixth form. Taking a group of students to see the Marquis de Sade. Swinging Sixties. At time considering self at the heart of the Flower Power generation, but not experiencing the sex and drugs. Group of friends leading a very safe life style.
4.00 “A wonderfully exciting time”.
Debating being a big issue in family and at school. Becoming interested in politics. Family having no political ties.
Life outside of school. Working from a very young age at the Greyhound Stadium.
Taking great pride in Cub and Scout troops. Being the youngest patrol leader in West Ham. Switching Church from High Anglican to Baptist.
4.40 'No theological barriers to mobility'.
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First girlfriend at the age of fifteen. Evenings out with a 'slightly odd' group of friends. Scaring the life out of themselves when they tried to have a seance.
Life at university. Another family debate. No parental contribution other than living at home during holidays. 1968-69 - huge growth in higher education. Being on a course in Middlesex of 150 people, a third of whom were mature students.
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Missing out on student politics.
15" 'I was in my Goth period then, wearing black and agonising over poetry and late night readings of dark novels'.
Ambitions. Having gone through periods of wanting to be a vet and a detective. Continually taking economics options on the course.
Meeting wife on the same course at Middlesex College. Being on the Entertainments Committee and holding a belated Valentine's Day dance in March 1969. Jane was working behind the bar.
Third year of the degree being a year's placement. Working for a marketing company in Basingstoke, who produced intimate deodorants Femme, Fresh, and Elle.
1.12 “The most extraordinary year”.
Being made acting brand manager after three months for the second most important intimate deodorant brand in the country.
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Launching the first male intimate deodorant; calling it 'Lui'. Living on a rural estate in Winchester with a colleague who was heavily into cannabis smoking.
Specialising a lot more in economics in the final year of degree. Working very hard and getting a 2:1. Towards the end of the final year becoming convinced he wanted to work in television. Applying for work at Granada and at the BBC. Beginning work at BBC as an Audience Researcher. Leaving to go to Queen Mary College, East London to continue studies of economics. Academic life.
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Getting an academic placement at Nottingham University. Jane moving to Birmingham.
20" “That plays a big part in explaining how I come to be in Birmingham”.
Parents' feelings about living together with Jane.
Turning down well paid job at Sheffield University, which would have allowed the purchase of a Triumph Stag. Staying at Nottingham to do a social audit on Boots.
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Boots withdrawing consent for audit to be published. Moving to Birmingham to work for the Department for the Environment. Taking a flat in Moseley with Jane.
2.34 “Birmingham was much more like a metropolitan city than Nottingham was”. Being very attracted to Moseley.
3.50 “Lots of politics and social activity mixed up in a great cocktail”.
Buying a house in Woodlands Road. A very multiracial area. Having a limited number of friends in the Asian and Afro-Caribbean community.
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Politically active. Leaving the civil service. 1978 - Getting involved with Peter Shore's Inner Urban Area Act. Focusing on inner city problems.
2.15 “It seemed increasingly clear to me that the really exciting place was going to be local government. That's where the things were going to be done”. Joining West Midlands County Council as an economist in 1978.
Being elected as a councillor for the Fox Hollies Ward in May 1980.
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Combining work for the West Midlands County Council and standing as a Labour politician. Being appointed a committee chair.
7th August 1976 - Married Jane. Reason being that they had decided to go to Mexico for a long holiday.
Marrying at Birmingham Registry Office after a Registry Office Strike.
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Account of wedding continued. April 1978 - first child Ben is born at Solihull Hospital, with their own GP.
Fitting Ben into a singles lifestyle. Taking turns to take Ben into Aston Nursery.
2.20 “I would sort of hold him under my arm like a briefcase!”.
Years with the West Midlands County Council. Helping to secure city money to promote employment initiatives.
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The county council being under Conservative control. Change of leader: Alan Hope. Large redundancies. 1978-81 – “the Midlands was very much the epicentre of the recession”. Designing and launching the Small Business Start-Up Scheme.
1981 - New Labour administration coming in. Geoff Edge.
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Founding the Economic Development Unit. Manufacture of sub-frame for Mini brought back from Italy to Birmingham First shares & first local planning agreement. Setting up Enterprise Board. New leaders being brought in for E.D.U.: Terry Pitt, Richard Minns. Heading up the Direct Investment Team. Warwick Science Park
1982/3 – Appointed as Deputy Head of Unit.
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Terry Pitt stood for European Parliament. Relationship with national government. Metropolitan counties to be abolished. Local leadership ignored disapproval of government. Support for Triumph Motorcycles. Nearly criticised in auditor’s report.
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Suspicion of conspiracy: Derek Hender intervened. Joined Wolverhampton Borough Council as Chief Executive 1985-1990.
39" "…my most exciting time in local government." Conservative group said they'd sack him at first opportunity. Unemployment & collapse of industrial base. Building strong team. Shaping organisation -economic development, strategic planning, personnel, & race equality at centre. Re-shaped political process - more like a cabinet. Getting ready for economic conditions to improve - to expand centre outside ring-road. Saved Wolverhampton Wanderers.
4.29 "1987, a young African-Caribbean man called Clinton McCurbin, was killed resisting arrest." Riots.
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Account of riots continued. Council offered to meet legal costs of family. Council criticised. Cost Labour group next election. He reminded new Conservative leader that he'd said he would sack him - here's your opportunity.
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Conservative leader didn't sack him. "…led to probably the most focussed year that I've ever had as a Chief Executive…". Tory/Liberal group knew they'd only got a year - 6 things they most wanted to achieve.
Living in St.Agnes Rd, Moseley. Drove to Wolverhampton - long days.
39"I applied for the post of Chief Executive of the County of Nottinghamshire in 1990". County structure & politicians operate very differently from a metropolitan area. 3.00. It included the period of the mine closures, which dwarfed everything else…" Trying to find alternatives.
3.34 "By that time I'd become very interested in how you shape organisations…" Information technology.
More on mine closures. Echo of early 80s recession in Birmingham.
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Held set of public hearings with Anthony Scrivenor, Q.C.
Family moved to Nottinghamshire village - change of lifestyle. 3.14 …and was our only glimpse ever of a real close community…".Wife had taught at B'ham Poly.
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Eventually she got job at Derby University. Her career disrupted. Thought this was final chapter of my career,
37" "…but in 1994..the post of Chief Executive of Birmingham was advertised…" Local; government reorganisation. County about to lose city. Nottinghamshire job no longer so attractive. Didn't think he'd get Birmingham job.
3.06"And so I came back to Birmingham in 1994…the biggest authority in the country, this city which was beginning to reshape itself…" If they wanted someone who'd work 60 hours a week, should appoint someone else. "I still work 60 hours a week." Organisation fragmented. Theresa Stewart had just taken over from Dick Knowles. Wanted to improve education. Portrayed in press as "no more prestige projects".
4.51 "The most useful thing that I've done in Birmingham…was…
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…to build a very clear view that ….all of this was part of a single vision, rather than competing elements…". Now understood that it's as important to improve public services as to have a good partnership with the private sector.
1.44 Big problem: vestiges of Thatcher government, adopted by ‘97 Blair government - much more centralised approach to public policy. Less scope for local government - struggle to be as confident.
3.11 “1998 was a really important year…" G8 Summit. Eurovision Song Contest. "It really was the year that set the seal on Birmingham having arrived…" Need to involve community - contrast with recent G8 Summit in Genoa.
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Poster: "Get your hair done, Marge, Bill Clinton's coming to town." Still problems, but very successful. Polls show local residents approved.
1.01 Thatwas time we were negotiating regeneration of the Bull Ring. 60s developments criticised. Hammersons and Land Securities persuaded to co-operate - exciting prospects.
3.00 Danger that you lose sight of experiences of daily life in outer Birmingham. Unemployment in July 2001 double average for rest of nation - about 8%. Ethnic minorities live in worst conditions. 3.55 Clare Short talks about Birmingham "a great bundle of joy and pain…". He doesn't forget his experiences in Acocks Green. Why he's committed to effective devolution: "a city of flourishing neighbourhoods." Council wasn't wrong to concentrate on city centre. Birmingham people didn't take jobs - need to improve skills.
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Big challenge for city - to build up confidence of other parts of city. Big challenge. Won't be easy. Will only work if tried in a few places, then once firmly rooted, move on to other areas. Northfield. Business Park. Pype Hayes & Castle Vale transformed.
1.37 "What I sought to change when I arrived here in 1994…" was episodic pilot schemes. Other areas jealous. Need for "systemic devolution" - things being done at more local level everywhere.
2.57 RECORDING CONTINED ON 1st AUGUST 2001.
"Racial diversity to some extent defines the city." About one third from ethnic minorities. Post 1960s people came for work - rapidly disappeared. E.g many came from rural Mirpur, hoping to transform lifestyles. Jobs drying up - increased racism.
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Anxious people didn't welcUome visitors. Public agencies have sought imperfectly to promote equal opportunities.
35" "I think the real history of the city is actually of a community of a million people changing, of communities getting more comfortable with each other…" Positive view if you stand outside Central Library on any Saturday. But ethnic minorities spatially separated. All Council can do is try to be as fair as possible.
2.42 This week, tried to ban planned march by National Front on 4th August. We'll see if Birmingham like Oldham and Bradford. People in Birmingham realised in 1982 Handsworth Riots that it's the local community that pays the price. Poorest communities - e.g. Pakistani - very anxious at the moment. Current Chief Constable, Ted Crew, has tried to improve community relations.
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Decision of BMW to jettison Rover in Spring 2000 came out of the blue. Prospect of impact on ten thousand plus employees and all support services. Aim of Alchemy to split up site. Who saved Rover? Local councils - Birmingham, Worcestershire, Bromsgrove - refused to let site be broken up. Stephen Byers came to put together Rover taskforce. John Towers' proposals for continued production. Company now doing well, but question of whether this is permanent solution or slower death.
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Tremendous achievement. Public reaction. He had mixed feelings about protest march - spontaneous reaction has its place, but "desperately backward-looking".
1.01 “…the future of Birmingham cannot be about the manufacture of cars for which there are no buyers..". But people cared about their fellow-citizens.
1.45 “When I came back in 1994, there had been 12 years of discussion over redevelopment of the Bull Ring.." In 1960s, a great attraction. By late 80s, run down. Increasingly seen as symbol of how far Birmingham had deteriorated. Hammersons ready to go by 1996. Land Securities planned competing development. City Council refused to choose between them. Founding of Birmingham Alliance - unique partnership between competing companies to do something jointly. At the moment, BullRing being redeveloped. Triggering plans for East Side.
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Plans for East Side. Digbeth - original heart of manufacturing activity. Underused. Close to city centre. Plans for new library, a "learning quarter", area people should be watching. Millennium Point in middle - partnership between public and private. Replacement for Science Museum - new Think Tank, Technology & Innovation Centre, University of the First Age, Young People's Parliament.
2.47 Science Museum was free. New facility won't be. Would people rather have something up-to-date and fund it? Old Science Museum fondly remembered, but not great learning experience.
4.08 Relationship between Chief Executive and local politicians. "It is…one of the most exciting parts of the job, and also the most frustrating."
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Compares working with Theresa Stewart and Albert Bore. "Working with politicians has given me almost certainly some of the best moments of my life and almost certainly equally the worst."
2.53 Thoughts on retirement. Came here 1975. Enjoyed one of the most privileged positions with largest employer in city. Going to chair CBSO. Going to be Professor of Public Policy at Birmingham University. Interesting to see how successors pick up the chain. City trying to re-invent itself. Knighthood never imagined. It will become clear if we've laid path for city to be restored to its former glory
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or whether just temporary, with Birmingham and other cities continuing to decline. A very fragile situation - "a word that I perhaps use too frequently".
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