Birmingham City Council 

Please see below updates from Cllr Bobby Alden, Leader of the Birmingham Conservative Group on Birmingham City Council, and Cllr Richard Parkin who represents Reddicap on Birmingham City Council and our own Town Council.

Cllr Bobby Alden:

‘The overriding story of Birmingham City Council over the last decade has been a Labour Administration that has failed to heed multiple warnings, failed to take the tough decisions necessary, and failed to put the interests of residents and its fiduciary duty to the taxpayer, ahead of its own party brand.   The statutory notices, comments from commissioners and external auditors, and the ministerial direction, all make clear that the issues faced by Birmingham City Council are self-inflicted failings that happened under the current Labour Administration. They can be broken down into 3 main areas:

• An Equal Pay Liability resulting from decisions made in settling the 2017 waste dispute to enrich male-dominated job roles and allowing the introduction of task and finish working practices.

• The botched implementation of the new finance and HR ERP system, Oracle, that is costing at least £100m to fix and has left the council unable to produce a reliable set of accounts, effectively monitor in-year spending, or adequately protect against fraud.

• The enduring problem of non-delivery of savings and weak financial management, masked by the use of reserves or hidden by one off savings.

Even where national issues with increasing complexity of demand, inflation, etc. have contributed to the financial position of the council, the Administration failed to properly account for these in its base budget. As the interim chief finance officer stated in their update report: ‘Many of these items should have been considered within the base budget for the Council in prior years. Since these items continue to result in overspending and budgets gaps in future years, this suggests a structural deficit in the underlying budget for the Council.’ This includes even the most basic and obvious mistakes like making accounting assumptions of 0% inflation at a time when globally driven inflation was at its highest for a generation. We know since that update the situation has got even worse, with more problems unearthed that have made the financial gap even bigger.

All of this leaves the Council facing an acute crisis that has been described as the most challenging any council has ever faced. A £670 negative reserves position, £300m of savings to deliver next year, a finance system that still cannot produce a workable set of accounts, and a pay structure that continues to give rise to claims for equal pay. 

We are now in the extraordinary position, where less than 12 months after promising a golden decade, Labour now run a council where the Chief Finance Officer is currently unable to issue a statement saying they can remain a going concern. In 2024/25, even if they manage to hit the latest target set by commissioners (having missed every previous one) they will still be asking government permission to set a deficit budget, like taking out a loan to pay their mortgage.

What is needed now more than ever is strong, decisive leadership, instead we have a leadership that is dragging its feet at every opportunity, either too weak or too senseless to take the action required. Tragically it is going to be Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield residents who pay the price for this with higher taxes and fees, fewer services, and the loss of many of assets that have belonged to this city for generations. 

This will be felt most acutely in areas outside of Birmingham City Centre, including Royal Sutton Coldfield, so long denied investment in favour of Labour's city centre vanity projects, and now having to pick up the bill for Labour's monumental mishandling of the city's finances.’

-       Cllr Bobby Alden, Leader of Conservative Group

Cllr Richard Parkin:

‘“A view from the City”

We won’t have much longer before we find out the devastating consequences of Labour Birmingham City Council’s (BCC) financial mismanagement.

The self-inflicted financial disaster at BCC has been caused by a combination of an estimated £760m equal pay liability, the £100m-plus cost of repairing BCC’s botched implementation of Oracle (the council’s new IT and finance system) and a forecast budget overspend of £87m.

Government commissioners have set a deadline of January 7th for BCC to come up with a 'credible plan' to fix the crisis. Members of the public will be consulted on the plans from December 13th onwards.

Although we don’t yet know all the details, the council’s Section 151 Officer has this week issued a report which gives an insight of what we can expect:

·       BCC need to find £300m in savings and income over the next two years, up from the original target of £215m.

·       Officers have so far identified £149m of cuts for the coming year, but more cuts - up to an additional £65m - will need to be found.

·       Savings identified so far include 'efficiency savings' of £50.6m and service cuts of £72.8m, which are likely to include a reduction in personnel and service closures. Part of the package also includes the sale of assets.

·       Garden waste charges will increase by 20% from £50 to £60 generating £1.2m of additional income in 2024/25. This relatively ‘small’ saving gives an indication of just how much more is needed to reach the overall savings target.

The figures are absolutely eye-watering.

Consultation with trades unions on hundreds of council staff redundancies is imminent with concerns that the scale of job losses could reach up to four figures. 

And on top of all this it is expected that BCC may ask the Government for permission to raise Council Tax levels above the 4.99% maximum allowed. Other local authorities in dire financial straits have raised their Council Tax by between 10% and 15%.

In the build-up to this crisis there has been an astonishing lack of openness and transparency from the Labour leadership, which a future independent enquiry will undoubtedly discover. Equal pay warnings have been ignored for six years and information hidden.

After suffering from 11 years of Labour misrule at BCC we have now reached the endgame.  The City Council is broke and as we approach the Festive season there will be no Christmas cheer coming out of Birmingham. 

Unfortunately, those who will suffer the most are the Council’s own staff and local residents with job losses, tax rises, service cuts and asset sales of community buildings.

Sutton Coldfield Conservative Birmingham City Councillors will continue to speak up for residents of the Royal Town in the months and years ahead. We will keep holding Labour BCC to account for their words and actions and we will be working tirelessly to protect the interests of the Town and its residents as this crisis unfolds in the New Year.’

-       Cllr Richard parkin, Sutton Reddicap

Aldi, Brassington Avenue

I recently wrote to the Managing Director of Aldi, Giles Hurley, about their new store on Brassington Avenue.

Planning permission is being sought but I raised concerns about the culvert through which the stream runs, which, if not properly addressed, raises flooding risks.

I have also asked for an update from Birmingham City Council flood risk authority and from the director of planning.

Following the response from Aldi, I have urged them to get on with it as soon as possible so that we can see spades in the ground soon. Development on this site has been stagnant while there has been backwards and forwards between developers for nearly a quarter of a century. 

Update on the Cottage Hospital 

Plans for the Cottage Hospital are well under way and I have received the following update on developments this week.

The meeting between the new owners of the Gracechurch Centre, the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council and Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust took place this week with proposals for a diagnostics centre in the centre of the Town and linked with Sutton Cottage Hospital:

‘The meeting was extremely positive and very beneficial. The outcome of which was that the Town Centre proposals would not be in conflict with Sutton Cottage Hospital and would provide much need services to Sutton Coldfield.’

As I have mentioned before, the regeneration of the role of our Cottage Hospital is one of my 4 key objectives for the Royal Town in the run up to our 500th anniversary in 2028 (the other three are driving forward with our Master Plan for the Town Centre, a new and exciting phase in the life of our great Town Hall, and the regeneration and reinvestment in our Sutton Park).

The last of these 4 is much the least advanced due to the troubles at Birmingham City Council.

I will give a full report and update of the cottage hospital hopefully before Christmas.

Newsflash: Save Our Cinema

Our campaign to save our Cinema may well be reaching a successful conclusion, so fingers crossed for an announcement in next Friday’s message…