Birmingham City Council

[belton rover]

Effectively declared themselves bankrupt. Partly blaming £760 million equal pay claims.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66715441

I wouldn’t be surprised if this starts the ball rolling.

[BillyStubbsTears]

There are clearly specific management issues to look at here. But at the risk of sounding like a broken record, local Govt has been gutted by Austerity. The Tories have Bern ruthless on this. They massively reduced funding for local authorities, and that left local councils facing the complaints about devasted services.



It has to stop. Austerity has been a mad, stupid, destructive idelogically-driven disaster.

[belton rover]

City Councils going bankrupt is yet another nail in the coffin for society as we know it in this country.

This country, and the world in general, is just f**ked.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Didn't and doesn't have to be like that Belton.

We CHOSE this path, with Austerity then Brexit. We can just as easily choose a more rational economic path over the next generation. We just need to start using our heads rather than our gut instinct. If we can't do that, we don't deserve a prosperous future.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Used to work with them, an absolute shambles of a council.

[belton rover]

Brexit is a result of the country being f**ked up, not the other way round.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Brexit can be traced back to Austerity.

Austerity screwed down real wages and living standards for 3 years. That gave Farage the opportunity to wade in blaming immigrants and Brussels[1]. That scared Cameron about losing right wing support and led directly to him calling the referendum. That gave Johnson his chance.

All so, so unnecessary. All due to the disaster of Austerity.

[1] No need to take my word. Polling tells the story. In the late 00s, immigration and the EU were way down the list of what people said were important. By 2015, they were at the top. Classic far right opportunism in response to an economic crisis - blame The Other, instead of the disaster we imposed on ourselves.

[SydneyRover]

''A recent survey by SIGOMA, (the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities representing 47 urban authorities in the northern, midlands and south-coast regions of England), which looked at the state of their local councils’ finances, found that ten per cent of members were considering making a Section 114 (S114) this year, while close to 20 per cent said it could be possible in the next year .......

...... Many councils said this was the first time they were having to consider these drastic actions due to their lack of cash reserves to balance the current year’s budget.

Councils highlighted that the most common cause of pressure was demand for children’s social care. Our members have called for the government to treat this service with the same importance as adult social care and provide additional grant funding.

Inflation, energy costs and wage rises were also significant factors, with the situation set to get worse as high-interest rates will soon begin to impact as existing loans mature, bringing more financial pressure.

This increase is despite changes to guidance in 2020 by Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy which gave authorities the ability to raise their financial distress with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) before issuing a notice. Since 2020, 16 councils have received exceptional financial support from DLUHC, with seven announced this year''

https://www.sigoma.gov.uk/news/2023/one-in-ten-sigoma-councils-facing-section-114-notice

[SydneyRover]

Not making excuses for any councils that may have been badly run but ..............

''Labour councils have borne the brunt of local government cuts over a decade of austerity, according to an analysis by the Guardian.

It highlights for the first time the extent to which poorer, largely Labour-held areas of England had their funding slashed on average by at least a third, while more affluent, largely Conservative areas received greater protection.

The analysis, published on Monday and carried out with Sigoma, a special interest group for councils in metropolitan areas, comes exactly 10 years since the then Conservative chancellor, George Osborne, announced the deepest period of cuts to public service spending since the second world war.


In his budget speech on 22 June, 2010, Osborne said his plans would be fair and would protect “the most vulnerable in society” while eliminating the government’s budget deficit.

But the new analysis reveals that, on average, Labour councils saw their spending power reduced by 34%, while the average Conservative council suffered an equivalent decline of less than a quarter (24%). Of the 50 councils which received the deepest budget cuts, 28 were Labour controlled in 2010, while just six were Conservative. The remainder were Liberal Democrat controlled (two) or had no overall control (14).

The disparity grew by the end of the decade, with 38 of the 50 worst-hit councils being Labour-controlled while only five were Conservative authorities.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/21/exclusive-labour-councils-in-england-hit-harder-by-austerity-than-tory-areas

please detail any of the above or in the link that may be incorrect, thank you for your corporation.

[ravenrover]

Just for a little eveness

[belton rover]

That’s interesting, Raven. It seems that this is far more than the Tories just screwing Labour Councils. And I don’t believe it is just down to austerity measures, either.

I’m telling you, the country is f**ked.

[turnbull for england]

https://www.countycouncilsnetwork.org.uk/worse-than-austerity-councils-warn-that-any-cuts-to-their-budgets-next-year-would-mean-they-are-only-able-to-offer-the-bare-minimum-in-local-services/

[scawsby steve]

Some people seem to have conveniently forgotten Donnygate.

[DRFC_AjA]

Importing poverty into a country already full of dole dossers doesn't help

[Glyn_Wigley]

Birmingham hasn't set the ball rolling, Northamptonshire did that five years ago.

[glosterred]

Let’s not forget that due to an equal pay dispute that has cost the council between £650,000,000 and £760,000,000. If they’d paid there workers correctly in the first place they wouldn’t now have to be finding this money now. Also noted that they would now only spend money on essential services etc. does this mean they were wasting their money on non essential things?

[GazLaz]

Importing poverty into a country already full of dole dossers doesn't help

Is the country full of people on the dole?

[belton rover]

Birmingham hasn't set the ball rolling, Northamptonshire did that five years ago.

And I’m sure there were others before that, and some in between.

But you’re missing my point.

I think that this high profile case, at this time (where attitudes are very different to even just 5 years ago) could well result in more councils shrugging their shoulders and saying ‘f**k it, we can’t pay’.

THAT’S the new ball that is beginning to roll.

[ravenrover]

Birmingham City Council changes bin collections from Tuesdays to February

Curtesy of X

[BillyStubbsTears]

Birmingham hasn't set the ball rolling, Northamptonshire did that five years ago.

And I’m sure there were others before that, and some in between.

But you’re missing my point.

I think that this high profile case, at this time (where attitudes are very different to even just 5 years ago) could well result in more councils shrugging their shoulders and saying ‘f**k it, we can’t pay’.

THAT’S the new ball that is beginning to roll.

There is absolutely no positive outcome to encourage councils to do this. They will bend over backwards to balance the books if they can.

The problem is that their funding has been decimated over the past 13vyears, by deliberate policy.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Birmingham hasn't set the ball rolling, Northamptonshire did that five years ago.

And I’m sure there were others before that, and some in between.

But you’re missing my point.

I think that this high profile case, at this time (where attitudes are very different to even just 5 years ago) could well result in more councils shrugging their shoulders and saying ‘f**k it, we can’t pay’.

THAT’S the new ball that is beginning to roll.

You make it sound like Councillor Surcharges don't exist any more.

[ravenrover]

Watch for Nottingham City Council being nrxt, they are already under special measures. The lost a fortune with a cheap energy exercise Robin Hood Energy

[belton rover]

Billy, Glyn.
I’m unsure if you are making an assumption that I am coming from a certain angle with this or not, but your responses seem to infer that.
But I’m not.
Of course austerity has played a part in the rapid decline in this country, but there are many other factors too.
The £760 million in equal pay claims, for example. It doesn’t matter to me at this point who is to blame for that, but it is one huge f**k up.
Add to that this ever growing culture of blame and entitlement, right down to the ‘have you been hurt in an accident?’ and it just getting worse.
I commented on the Letby thread about a similar culture that probably allowed a baby killer to continue killing babies.

My feelings have very little to do with politics anymore - though politics has never been a huge interest or influence on me anyway.
I realise how defeatist I sound, but I have just about given up on trying to work out who is to blame for the absolute mess we are in, and how we are going to get out of it.

[Glyn_Wigley]

The only assumption I made was that you think councillors shrug their shoulders and say 'f**k it we can't pay'.

I made what you seem to think is an assumption because that's exactly what you said. So why you think I'm making an assumption is a mystery to me.

And because you said that, it looked to me like you didn't know that councillors can be surcharged so that the debt can be passed from the council to them personally. Which is why I said what I did.

[belton rover]

The only assumption I made was that you think councillors shrug their shoulders and say 'f**k it we can't pay'.

I made what you seem to think is an assumption because that's exactly what you said. So why you think I'm making an assumption is a mystery to me.

And because you said that, it looked to me like you didn't know that councillors can be surcharged so that the debt can be passed from the council to them personally. Which is why I said what I did.

Okay Glyn, I’ll leave it there.

[Glyn_Wigley]

I wonder if hound will like that one

[danumdon]

Makes you wonder if councils like this one need bringing to task on not prioritising public services but being very quick to deal with cases which are by their very nature costly, involving plenty of litigation and are not best value for the pittance of a budget they are working with.

I'm sure most people just want their council to do the basics first and foremost and make a decent job of that before anything else.

Priorities are very much in the wrong place.

[belton rover]

Priorities certainly are all wrong, but I don’t think it’s a case of councils choosing - I think in this day and age they have little choice.

[Colemans Left Hook]

lest we forget

out of interest

i googled to find out what happened when the councils  put there money on 15% deposit  with the Icelandic banks that went bust.

BBC said in 2014 The "lion's share" of the £1.05bn lost by councils when Iceland's major banks collapsed will be recouped, it has been announced.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said more than 95p per £1 lost in 2008 would be returned.

i didn't realise this one  "MIGHT" ? have "turned out nice" 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26052949

[Bristol Red Rover]

Billy, Glyn.
I’m unsure if you are making an assumption that I am coming from a certain angle with this or not, but your responses seem to infer that.
But I’m not.
Of course austerity has played a part in the rapid decline in this country, but there are many other factors too.
The £760 million in equal pay claims, for example. It doesn’t matter to me at this point who is to blame for that, but it is one huge f**k up.
Add to that this ever growing culture of blame and entitlement, right down to the ‘have you been hurt in an accident?’ and it just getting worse.
I commented on the Letby thread about a similar culture that probably allowed a baby killer to continue killing babies.

My feelings have very little to do with politics anymore - though politics has never been a huge interest or influence on me anyway.
I realise how defeatist I sound, but I have just about given up on trying to work out who is to blame for the absolute mess we are in, and how we are going to get out of it.

Inequality,  where the scale of reward goes up exponentially. Elites at the top creaming it, and holding onto their position at any cost to the overall state of things, but especially at the cost in lives, health, opportunity of the poorer.

Politically speaking, you will find the Conservative party are the ones to most protect these elites. The right wing Labour Party do this less so.

The absolute myth of democracy as it exists also protects it.