Birmingham City Council to cut nearly 30% from housing budget
The council effectively declared bankruptcy in September.
Birmingham City Council plans to cut nearly 30 per cent from its already stretched housing budget. The broke authority is in a financial mess after failing to get to grips with a historic £760million equal pay liability.
Paul Langford, interim strategic director for city housing, said the council needs to make “significant” savings. Speaking at a homes overview and scrutiny committee meeting, he said: “The kind of percentage we’re looking at within the housing service is around 28 per cent of the controllable budget.
“These are significant levels of savings that we will need to bring forward to balance both this year and then further in 24/25 and beyond.” The relevant budget stands at around £25m, said Mr Langford, with 28 per cent of that equating to £7m.
Around £5m to £5.5m in savings have been identified already without considering possible winter pressures, added Mr Langford who admitted to being “concerned”. He said: “We’re not going to just accept that performance will deteriorate because we have a more limited resource, but clearly it will become more challenging with that level of reduction”
The announcement of planned housing cuts comes after the Regulator for Social Housing found serious issues with the council’s social housing stock earlier this year. The watchdog revealed that thousands of Birmingham council homes had gone without crucial safety checks – potentially putting tenants at serious risk of harm.
On the housing cuts, Birmingham Tory leader Coun Robert Alden said: “It’s simply astonishing that, given the housing crisis we have here under this Labour administration, they would look to cut the budget by close to 30 per cent. There are 23,000 homes in Birmingham which do not meet the ‘decent homes standard’.”
Mr Alden added that “instead of cutting £7m from the housing budget” Labour should look to make savings elsewhere. “£17m a year on consultants, the £100m overspend on their Oracle IT rollout, or the potential £250k worth of lost IT equipment,” he said.
“The simple reality is this: had the Labour administration gotten a grip of these situations and done their job, this wouldn’t be happening. For those people affected, this won’t be so much pulling the rug out from under their feet, but more ripping the roof off from over their heads.”
Coun Jayne Francis (Harborne, Lab) said at the home overview meeting that “it’s not all doom and gloom”. The cabinet member for housing and homelessness added: “We’re absolutely adamant that we will protect our frontline services and make sure those who are most vulnerable in our city will be our priority over the next few months.”