Councillor in tears over Birmingham's budget cuts

A councillor was brought to tears as extensive council cuts in Birmingham moved a step closer to becoming reality.

Labour councillor Liz Clements broke down during Tuesday's cabinet meeting as plans to tackle a £300m budget deficit over the next two years were signed off ahead of being voted on by the full council on 5 March.

Among cuts planned are for the council to withdraw financial support for arts and creative organisations in the city – including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra where Ms Clements is a trustee.

“Arts aren’t a luxury, they are actually what makes life worth living in this city and they are a reason to keep going," she said. "So I, personally, I’m really devastated about that."

"But I know we’ve got to get through and set the budget," the councillor for Bournville & Cotteridge added.

The council has long-standing financial issues which have been compounded by an £867m equal pay claim and an overspend on IT and finance system Oracle which is set to reach around £136m.

Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton said inflation and increased demand for some services were among main causes for the cuts

Labour council leader John Cotton told the cabinet meeting the majority of the cuts were down to inflation and increased demand in areas like social care.

But he recognised there were Birmingham specific issues with equal pay and the Oracle implementation but added work was under way to address those problems.

“There will be accountability for what went wrong and I have insisted that the government begins the independent inquiry into that as soon as possible," he said.

'Financial mismanagement'

Budget proposals also include a planned 21% council tax rise over the next two years as well as drastic cuts to frontline services.

A report was also presented at the meeting from the council’s director of finance Fiona Greenway.

In it she described financial mismanagement as “deep rooted” at the council.

Responding to the report, Conservative opposition leader Robert Alden said: “This is the largest metropolitan single-tier council in the country.

"We should not be having a situation here where financial mismanagement is deep rooted.”

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.