The City of Birmingham Council

Attack on Children, Adults, and Homeless Services.

Nothing is safe as Birmingham City Council prepares to make the largest cuts in a single year in its history.

The first tragic details of Birmingham’s impending cuts have been exposed, and the impact on the most vulnerable is expected to be disastrous.

Birmingham City Council’s children’s services will be cut by at least £59 million, including services for children with special needs, schools and early years services, and social care. Another £21 million will be spent on adult social care and social work.

Housing, including homeless services and housing management, will lose £5.8 million, while city operations services including are highways, parks, house rubbish, and enforcement such as Fly-Tipping will lose £29.2 million. Transportation and environmental programmes would also be cut.

The highest percentage decrease will be in council management services, with the existing £31.3 million budget being reduced in half, with the majority of the savings coming from job losses. HR, digital and customer services, legal and democratic services, finance, revenue, benefits, and business support are all part of the directorate.

An appendix belatedly attached to papers for a meeting of the council’s Cabinet on Tuesday, December 12, provided a dismal outline of where the axe was about to fall. The single-page document detailed cuts of £149 million by the Council. The council hasn’t finished looking for services to eliminate yet; another £75 million in cuts is expected.

Council leader Cllr John Cotton called it as the council’s greatest challenge in its existence. When asked if he could keep his promise made some months ago to ensure that any cuts ‘protected the vulnerable,’ he responded it was still his first concern.

“Without a doubt, this is the most difficult challenge we have ever faced.” We faced a significant struggle during the early years of austerity, but this is far greater.

“When developing the budget plan, we need to minimise the impact on those people as much as possible.” People are dealing with multiple cost-of-living issues, a crisis is emerging in other public services such as health and policing, and there are changes in social security, so we are navigating this in the most sensitive way possible in accordance with our values as a Labour council and to mitigate the impacts on our most vulnerable, but there will be some difficult decisions.”

A comprehensive detailed budget has yet to be released, despite the fact that the city council was aware of its severe situation for months. A comprehensive breakdown is due ‘within two to three weeks,’ revealing where the cuts will be made.

“We are continuing to challenge the savings lines (put forward by officers) to ensure they are robust and can be delivered,” Cllr Cotton said of the delays. The specifics will be released in the following two to three weeks, followed by a budget consultation with citizens and companies to help shape the final set of recommendations.”

So far, what we know
A detailed breakdown of the savings identified thus far was included in a late annex to a cabinet report on finances. The council has stated which directorate and which services are affected by the £149 million in cuts previously identified. It speaks ill for the future of various services that are in high demand, such as homeless assistance, support for vulnerable persons, and child care. This is the whole breakdown:

Adult Social Care – provision of Social Care and Principal Social Work to be reduced by £21.9 million from a total budget of £903.4 million, a 5% reduction.

City Operations – provision of regulation and enforcement, street scene, neighbourhoods, highways, and infrastructure – £29.2 million trimmed from a budget of £206.2 million, a 14.2 percent savings.

City Housing – supply of housing management, homelessness – cut of £5.8 million from a budget of £24.4 million, a 23.8 percent savings.

Places, Prosperity, and Sustainability – provision of corporate landlord services, transport and connectivity, sustainability, and planning – will be slashed by £9.07 million, or 16.6 percent, of the budget of £54.7 million.

Strategy, Equalities, and Partnerships – provision of public health, communications, the Chief Executive’s office, Cabinet Office, and City Observatory – will be reduced by £2.6 million, a 31.7 percent reduction from £8.2 million.

Council Management – the following provision of People (HR) Services, Digital and Customer Services, Legal and Democratic Services, Finance, Customer Services, Business Support, Revenues and Benefits will be cut by £15.6 million from a budget of £31.3 million, representing a 49.8 percent savings. At the expense of the people.

Contract savings, consolidation, digital technologies, and automating have all resulted in further cross-departmental reductions of £8.5 million.

Cllr Cotton stated that other local governments were facing comparable issues as a result of rising demand and higher service delivery costs, citing Nottingham City Council’s recent admission that it, too, was officially enter into a state of bankruptcy and had to issue a Section 114 court notice to that effect.

“The amount of cuts proposed will be horrendous for Birmingham residents,” The Green Party’s Cllr Julien Pritchard said of the cuts. With the possibility of a council tax increase, Citizens will be paying much more for much less.

“We still don’t know what’s going to happen. The Citizens of this great city, are clearly suffering from a double whammy of national Government cuts to councils and local Labour party mishandling of what’s left, with Citizens losing numerous services they need and love. There appears to be little indication services will be safeguarded. “I’m concerned that those with the least will suffer the most.”

The council additionally announced it intends to petition national government for special permission to raise council taxes above the current limit allowed which is 4.99%, as well as to utilise proceeds from asset sales to cover redundancy costs and equal pay liability expenses.