'The council is a joke’: Brummies react to ‘devastating’ cuts

1. Birmingham City Council is attempting to fill a £300m budget shortfall over the next two years
2. The latest detail includes savings of £23.7m on adult social care
3. Introducing fortnightly waste collections from 2025-26 is expected to save £4.5m a year
4. Council tax is set to rise by 10% from April with similar rise planned for 2025-26
5. The local authority warned in January that up to 600 jobs could go
6. It declared itself effectively bankrupt last year, in large part due to equal pay claims

'Dark day' for city amid tax rises and assets sale

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That's where we'll leave our rolling coverage of today's budget details from Birmingham City Council.You can see more analysis on Midlands Today at 18:30 on BBC One and listen for more reaction on BBC Radio WM with Rakeem Omar tomorrow morning.

And of course, we'll have updates and reaction as the effects of the planned cuts filter through over the coming days and weeks.

Higher charges on the way

Simon Gilbert

BBC Political Reporter, Birmingham

The documents released over the past 24 hours contain details of higher charges for a range of council services:

• Garden waste collection charges are due to increase from £50 to £60.
• Bins will no longer be emptied on Bank Holidays.
• Charges for the collection of up to 10 bulky waste items will increase from £35.70 to £45.
• Pest control for rats is currently free – but a £24 charge is set to be introduced.
• Parking charges are coming to Sutton Park, Lickey Hills Country Park and Sheldon Country Park. They will be £2.20 for up to two hours, £3.30 for up to four hours and £5 for all day.

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• Admission to Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park is due to increase by around 10%. Tickets are currently priced at £7.65 for adults and £3.80 for children aged 30 to 15.
• There will be a £200,000 reduction to the graffiti removal teams budget. The council’s assessment reads: “The reduction of the graffiti crews will mean that there will potentially be a longer wait for graffiti to be removed.”

MP had 'jaw-dropping' meeting with commissioner

Sutton Coldfield's Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell says "disastrous financial management" by the Labour council administration has left a "deeply depressing mess".In a series of posts detailing talks with Max Caller, the lead commissioner overseeing the authority, the MP called for services to be devolved to Sutton Coldfield Town Council, and an inquiry to establish the cause of the crisis.Local government leaders say a reduction in central government funding has worsened the issues facing councils

Andrew Mitchell MP

Many smaller cuts also included in the budget plans

While some of the big announcements will rightly get the headlines, there are all sorts of measures included in these budget proposals.

All will have an impact in one way or another.

For instance, increasing the number of automated phone messages on customer service lines could save almost £1.5m.

Calling a halt to the Neighbourhood Action Coordinators scheme, which has been supporting community projects in parts of Birmingham would save almost £2m the authority said.

Cuts to the legal services department could save more than £800,000.

'Deep-rooted financial mismanagement'

Fiona Greenway, the council's director of finance, has pulled no punches in a report which has been published alongside the budget proposals.

She was appointed in April last year and in her report she said: "Financial mismanagement is deep-rooted within Birmingham City Council."

In particular, she said there had been: "Over-reliance on the use of reserves, growing liabilities, imprudent estimates in relation to financial planning, a historical inability to deliver savings, and a number of open prior-year accounts back to 2020."

'A dark day that sets the city back' - West Midlands Mayor

The West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, has described the city council's budget plans as "depressing".

In a series of social media posts, he said it was a "dark day that sets the city back, just as we thought we had turned a corner and were on the rise again".

The Conservative politician also laid the blame at the feet of the Labour-run council's leadership and said: "Once again it’s citizens picking up the pieces".

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In his posts on X, Mr Street said: "I don’t have a magic wand, but I’ll continue to do all I can to help."

He said he had tried to "keep public transport fares low, keep investment flowing, and refused to introduce a mayoral tax".

Mr Street, who will face fresh mayoral elections again in the spring, accepted none of this could make up for the millions of pounds being cut from services, but concluded: "We must not let this sorry episode define our city."

Your comments: 'I feel like we're being suffocated'

BBC Radio WM

Kiran Sahota, who works with young people in Birmingham has said the proposed cuts are "absolutely digusting".

She told BBC WM youth services are still feeling the effects of austerity cuts and Covid and asked: "Where are we supposed to send young people and what are we supposed to do with them?"

Speaking about the cuts as a whole, she said: "I feel like we're being suffocated and we can't breathe."

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Rob in Northfield worried that the 21% tax rise over the next two years might not be the end of it and that further tax rises could follow.

He said: "They don't know how to manage money."

Culture cuts on the way

There will be a cut to all funding for culture projects and local arts development, including support for 10 local arts forums.

Support will initially be retained for Black History Month and Birmingham Heritage Week in 2024/25 but those events will face a 100% cut from 2025/26.

Birmingham International Dance Festival will lose its £350,000 funding

Grants to regularly-funded arts organisations will face 50% cuts this year and 100% next financial year.

They include:

• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
• Birmingham REP Theatre
• Birmingham Royal Ballet
• IKON Gallery
• Birmingham Opera Company
• FABRIC
• Sampad
• Ex Cathedra
• Legacy Centre of Excellence
• B:Music

Funding to attract tourism will also be cut by £25,000.

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Impact on most vulnerable 'mitigated'

More from council leader John Cotton now.

Earlier, we reported he had told our political editor Rob Mayor that proposed cuts to services were "really difficult decisions to take".

Mr Cotton insisted the council was aware of the impact the measures would have on people throughout Birmingham.

But he said adult social care and children's services would take a lower percentage cut than back office functions responsible for council bureaucracy.

"What we've sought to do in framing this budget is ensuring that we've mitigated the impact on the most vulnerable," he said.

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Less money for waste enforcement

Simon Gilbert

BBC Political Reporter, Birmingham

Cuts of £130,000 are lined up to the team responsible for tackling fly-tipping and commercial waste issues.

The Waste Enforcement Team is described as “boots on the ground” enforcement officers.

There are also plans for an additional £130,000 to be saved through enforcement officers supporting their own salaries by taking commission from fines issued.

The report into the proposed savings reads: “a reduction of this nature will lead to less investigation of waste crime, more waste in the environment and lower levels of community engagement.”

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Peaky Blinders creator remains optimistic

Alexander Brock

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The creator of Peaky Blinders. Steven Knight, has said he believes creative industries can continue to flourish in the city, despite the council cuts.

Included in the cuts is a big reduction in the Cultural Organisation Grants, but speaking at an HS2 event on Tuesday, Mr Knight said: “I can understand people being worried, but I always think in creative industries you have to try to thrive in circumstances where people don’t get what you’re doing for a bit."

He said financial hardship "comes with the territory" but added: "hopefully when decisions are being made, people don’t think arts are a luxury because I don’t think they are.”

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Mr Knight also said the Digbeth film and TV studios he has backed will not be affected because they are not reliant on public money.

And he said: “It’s like the shoots are coming through, we’ve got to cultivate them and make sure we look after them.”

Everything on the table during council crisis

In his analysis, our political reporter Simon Gilbert warned the cuts outlined by Birmingham City Council last night are deep, brutal and all-encompassing.

And everything is on the table.

The council has carried out dozens of equality impact assessments on almost every element of its plan.

These have been undertaken to ensure drastic measures don't discriminate against the most vulnerable.

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Charges could be introduced at Lickey Hills car park

The documents aren't the easiest to navigate but provide a stark reminder, in list form, of just how exhaustive these cuts will be.

They look at the impact of slashing the budget for young people's travel and how cuts to specific events such as Birmingham Dance Festival will affect residents.

They even go into the potential consequences of charging more for garden waste and reviewing costs at Sheldon Country Park, Lickey Hills, Sutton Park and Birmingham Wildlife Park.

Increased service charges for families living in homeless centres are also among the things under consideration.

School crossing patrols to stay

More than 100 existing school crossing patrols across Birmingham are to be sheltered from the cuts.

Despite the council not being legally obliged to provide the service, it has found an alternative way of funding the patrols.

Money taken from Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges will be used to pay for the patrols over the next three years, starting in April.

'Scorched-earth budget' and 'failure' - other parties react

Green Party councillors in Birmingham have reacted to the proposed budget.

Julien Pritchard, the group's leader, said: "This budget leaves residents of this city unsafe. It abandons young people and their families [and] hollows out our communities."

Mr Pritchard said the budget would create a false economy because it would cost more to repair the reinstate vital services in the future.

"Not only will this scorched-earth budget cause pain now, it will harm this city for years to come," he added.

Julien Pritchard

Julien Pritchard has been left unimpressed

Meanwhile, councillor Roger Harmer for the Liberal Democrats said the council had failed on a number of fronts.

“It’s their failure to manage equal pay, their failure to implement Oracle and their failure to manage the budget that has led to the disastrous situation that we now face," he said.

“These failures are totally unacceptable and entirely the fault of Labour.”

Flood response cuts 'will impact poor'

There will be no budget to respond to emergency flooding events in the city as a result of budget cuts.

Around £50,000 a year will be saved under the proposals.

A council assessment of the impact of the change reads: “Reduction in maintenance budget, flood asset regimes and reactive maintenance would need to be reduced, increasing the risk of blockage and flood damage.

“No budget for emergency works and responding to flooding events.”

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The council expects the change to impact residents, businesses and schools – especially those in flood-prone areas.

The report also reads: “Less affluent and poorer areas are more susceptible to the impacts of flooding and are also less resilient to flooding.”

Equal pay union 'concerned' by cuts

The BBC's Maisie Olah has been speaking with Stuart Richards from the GMB union.

The organisation represents council workers and is pursuing an equal pay claim of up to £760m against the authority, forming a large part of its financial problems.

Stuart Richards

Mr Richards said the union was concerned by the cuts which would "hit the most vulnerable in our communities".

He said: "There are too many gaps and not enough thought, which means it is pushing the council even closer to the point where it fails to even deliver even basic statutory services."

A city in dire and drastic times?

Phil Mackie

BBC Midlands correspondent

Let's take a look back at how this all started. Birmingham’s dire financial position came after the botched introduction of a finance and payroll system that cost an estimated £100m, as well as its liability for £750m in equal pay claims.

That’s after it had already paid over a billion pounds to people - mostly women - who’d been paid less than others on the same grade but doing different jobs - mostly men.

The decision to allow it to raise the money by selling off its assets which include land, property and even works of art, won’t stop there being drastic cuts to services and the closure of around 600 jobs.

The city’s finances are being overseen by commissioners who were appointed when the council declared itself effectively bankrupt last year. It will seek to pass a budget early next month which includes nearly £300 million in savings over the next two years.

A recap of the cuts

Andy Giddings

BBC News

If you're just joining us now, or need a recap, here's a summary of some of the main cuts announced by Birmingham City Council.

• Council tax will rise by 21% over the next two financial years
• Bin collections will become fortnightly from 2025-26
• Costs of cremation and burial will rise by more than 10%
• Streetlights will be dimmed to save almost £1m a year
• Adult social care will be cut by £23.7m in the next financial year
• Children's, Young People and Families budgets face a £51.5m cut
• All discretionary spending on school transport will be reviewed and all funded travel for children who travel fewer than three miles will be cut.
• Council funding for all community centres will end
• The road-maintenance budget will be cut by £12m
• The budget for flood response will go

As part of the savings, the council is still looking to cut up to 600 jobs.

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