Birmingham City Council has approved a council tax rise by 9.99 percent for the next financial year alongside a number of cuts to services provided by the local authority.
To this end, the local authority will take measures, such as dimming street lights to save £900,000 and cutting highway maintenance spending by £12 million. Council residents will also see their rubbish collected fortnightly to save £4 million a year.
During the debate, Council leader John Cotton apologised for the “unprecedented” scope of cuts of over £300 million. The “harsh reality” is that cuts are necessary to meet the challenge set by commissioners, he added.
The new savings programme includes selling capital assets, such as buildings, and reduced funding for adults social care and children care services.
Let Down
The Labour-run Birmingham council is the largest local authority in the UK and Europe, serving 1.1 million taxpayers.He added that not all local authorities in the country were in the same position. Mr. Gove noted the “stark” contrast between the management in Birmingham City council and the “wise stewardship” of West Midlands by mayor Andy Street.
“Instead all Birmingham Labour have to offer is a double whammy of higher taxes and fewer services,” Mr. Alden added.
The council’s financial collapse came following its failure to settle a £760 million bill on equal pay claims and a flawed implementation of a costly Oracle ERP software system.
“For Brummies, the council is running out of time to fix its finances before all services loved by our city are lost,” Mr. Alden said.
Birmingham is the latest council to have announced its effective bankruptcy, following similar cases of the Woking, Thurrock councils. Faced with the cost-of-living crisis and high inflation, local authorities have struggled to retain the same level of spending on key services.
Mr. Cotton said the Birmingham council faced “a perfect storm of smaller budgets but higher costs, leading to widespread cuts to waste collection, road repairs and leisure services.”
“Vital public services are on the brink of being all but destroyed. This is the culmination of years and years of brutal budget reductions by central government,” Ms. Keogh added.
