Delay on budget challenges Birmingham City Council leader
This could mean council tax rises and the loss of services and jobs.
Birmingham City Council's leader is facing challenges after confirmation of which services will be slashed was ‘delayed’.
Birmingham City Council now faces an enormous budget gap of at least £300 million.
This means services in the city being slashed, job losses at the authority and a council tax rise for residents.
The Labour-run authority's bleak financial situation is down to an equal pay fiasco, rising demand for services, the disastrous implementation of a new IT and finance system and the impact of years of austerity.
The budget, and the wave of cuts it is likely to include, is now set to be discussed first on Tuesday, February 27 at a council cabinet meeting following a ‘delay’, with the full budget meeting then taking place on Tuesday, March 5.
Council leader John Cotton spoke at a Meeting of the City Council this week saying, the change in the budget timetable was because they were awaiting a response from the government to a request for exceptional financial support.
“It’s been confirmed that will not be arriving until the week commencing February 26.
“We cannot set our budget until we have received a response to that request.
“It’s had an inevitable consequence and knock-on effect on that budget timetable.”
“I think we’ve been very clear that we know we are facing significant financial challenges and there will be very tough decisions that need to be taken.”
He continued, “Those will be set out when we publish that budget report in accordance with that timetable.”
Conservative leader Robert Alden responded by saying the situation was “simply not good enough” and added: “Residents deserve to know the horrible stuff that Labour are planning.
“So will the leader finally be open, transparent and honest with the people of Birmingham by publishing the draft budget this week?”
Cllr Cotton responded: “We will publish the budget in accordance with the timetable that is set out and we will be able to have that debate and discussion with the people of this city.
He went on to say that the “difficult decisions” the council will have to make have been “made worse by the consequence of over a decades’ worth of austerity inflicted by councillor Alden’s party.”
“I haven’t heard him Cllr Alden utter a word of apology for the decimation that’s caused to our public services,” he added.