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Broke Birmingham City Council has to identify cuts and savings totalling a staggering £195 million for next year, with warnings that there is unlikely to be a bailout on the way. The staggering sum will dwarf this year’s slash-and-burn budget that has sparked campaigns and protests.
Officials and councillors have been tasked with spending the summer working out where the axe can fall in already beleaguered services. The news comes via a bleak financial update shared with council leaders who meet next week to discuss the implications.
Speaking to BirminghamLive about the latest news, lead commissioner Max Caller, appointed last year by then Government minister Michael Gove to oversee affairs, said it showed again that swift action was needed.
While he would not comment on speculation that the incoming Labour government might soften the approach in Birmingham – either by bringing in a new commissioner with a different, longer term strategy, or via a significant bailout – he said he did not believe there was a ‘white knight’ on the way to ‘save the city’.
“It is in the hands of the councillors to save the city. There is a future for the city, but to get there will involve hard work and tough decisions. In my experience, if you take longer over it, things just get worse, it drags the pain out.”
He added: “The council has to be honest with itself and its residents and this report makes the position clear.”
In her update to senior councillors, finance director Fiona Greenway reveals that the cuts it has to find next year have now increased by £50 million because of the rising cost of caring and safeguarding children with complex needs, alongside the costs of pay settlements and inflationary costs.
That means it must find in all cuts and savings totalling £194.5 million. That will dwarf the cuts alredy made or under consultation for this year, which totalling £149.5m were described at the time as ‘unprecedented’.
Cuts to arts services, proposed closures of libraries, adult day centres and early help services, reduced social care services, budget cuts for children’s services, the decimation of the youth service, less parks and roads maintenance, dimmed street lighting…very little escaped the axe this year.
Ms Greenway’s medium term financial report, going to the council’s cabinet on Tuesday (July 23), said it is clear the council’s financial position this year and looking ahead to next year “continues to be of significant concern” to the corporate leadership team, cabinet and commissioners.
“This increase to the savings target for the 2025/26 financial year only makes the challenge more difficult. An acceleration is required to the work to identify additional savings (for the coming year and the year after) to support the council’s return to financial stability.”
She states that asking the Government for extra leeway – for example by allowing it to sell off more of its assets and use the money raised to fund services – was ‘currently not a feasible option’.
